Reflection - Mind mapping

Challenge

Working in a digital company in the Travel & Leisure industry, we have the opportunity to introduce a new kind of search for our customers. We already have an existing Proof of Concept but we knew from some user tests that this product had a lot of issues in terms of usability, interaction and content quality. The Poc has been built from a tech point of view, thinking about great possibilities that come out from new technologies applied but there is not any study, research about what customers need and what kind of problems this product could solve. So I started interviewing customers and investigating their needs and expectations in regards to a specific situation.

Selection

At this point of the initiative, I defined and organised a first workshop with stakeholders from diﬀerent roles and I choose Mind mapping tool because the scope was to digest all the data I collected from users, create a common knowledge on what users need and build a strong collaboration to go ahead with the process having a solid base of data.

Application

I prepared printed material to lay out in the workshop room so that participants could easily consult and really start thinking from a customer point of view. Those materials contain insights in diﬀerent forms: quotes, emotions, pain points, win points, diary description, and other important concepts come from user interviews. Participants have been divided into 4 groups and been provided with large white paper, post-it and pen and they have 10 minutes to familiarize with data collected, 10 minutes to write what they think is important in regards to what customers say, think, do and feel (empathy map). A�er this, each group has time to share, discuss and cluster thoughts and insights, highlighting connections. What’s more, they create need statements starting from maps already done.

Insight & Approach

At the end of this workshop we agree on some design statements in the HMW form to improve fall short of expectations, to not make customers lose in the flow and to tailor search experience in order to map customers expectations and needs. The next step is to ideate solutions based on design statements / criteria defined together and be prepared for the first test of this new product.

I think mind mapping is a great tool to share insights and especially to empathise with customers and build a common knowledge to start ideation phase. If a similar initiative will come to me, I probably add an exercise to even more familiarize with customers' frustrations and enrich insights from the existing proof of concept (e.g. a user in each group tries out the POC while others observe and take notes to then share and discuss).

