Host controls

The Host controls are available when Meeting mode is active, and they help you run a productive collaboration session.

Meeting controls

You must start a meeting (see below 👇) to become the board Host. As a Host, you can:

• Turn on private writing to hide sticky notes

• Decide which tools your participants get

• Prevent participants from unlocking the board

• Set a timer

• Enable "Hide Identities" to make everyone anonymous

• Run Polls

• Use the "Ready Check" to see if everyone is ready to move on

• Use "Everyone to Me" to bring everyone to your current view

• Add additional Hosts

How to start a Meeting

To become the Host, switch into Meeting mode from the button above the left toolbar or from the top of the board:

Everyone on the board sees the broadcasted message:

Everyone sees the announcement message.

The Host has access to meeting controls from the header:

Click on the Meeting name at the top to get the facilitator controls.

Hide Identities

Hide Identities allows you to make all participants anonymous, and to stop Metro Retro tracking what they wrote or where they voted. When Hide Identities is on:

• you can’t tell who is who

• you can’t tell who wrote a sticky note, ever!

• voting is anonymous

Hide Identities is a mode that you can turn on and off, to use whenever you need - whether for the whole session or just one activity.

How to enable Hide Identities

Enable Hide Identities from the Host controls when you have a meeting active.

From then on, anything written or voted on when Hide Identities is active stays that way, forever. Nothing can ever be tied back to an individual.

When you’re done, turn Hide Identities off to go back to regular mode, where all new contributions and votes are tracked again.

Regular mode	Hide Identities on
Everyone has an avatar	All avatar pictures replaced with a single question mark
All sticky notes show the author	No authors
Individual handwriting for each person	Everyone’s handwriting is the same font
Can spotlight a person’s stickies and votes	Spotlight disabled in anon mode
Can spotlight a person's votes	All votes are anonymous
Can Follow other people	Following is disabled during anonymous mode
Export contains who wrote and voted	Export does not contain who wrote and voted while in anon mode

Why isn’t everything always anonymous in Metro Retro?

In short - we don’t believe anonymity should be default for team sessions, but we recognize that anonymity can be a useful tool in certain scenarios:

• helping newer teams raise awkward issues

• reducing bias like zombie groupthink, or the HIPPO effect

• is another useful tool in a facilitators toolbox