MIND MAPPING FOR A PROCESS DEEP DIVE

Challenge    I was hired as a project manager/business analyst to “fix the processes” of a software consulting  firm to put on the broadest of terms. To be more specific, this required crucial business analysis  and process development. They were using a project management tool but there were no  processes laid out to follow, no metrics, no KPIs, nothing was measured. Customers were  following up on work, because they couldn’t keep track of requirements and the company just  didn’t know if they were on budget, profitable, or sustainable.    Selection    Knowing nothing from the start, what processes and services the company provided, the  obvious choice of data gathering and understanding the problem was simply through  interviewing, with my obvious tool selection to be mind mapping. Mind mapping would allow me  to dig deep into the culture of the company and the highly specialized software sector this  company served. In deeply understanding and studying my audience, journey mapping also  played a key function in developing the new process. Journey mapping’s concept is to  understand the what is, how they work, how they get their job done, who they are individually  and as a team. It is painting the picture of the what is. The approach was journey mapping, and  the tool I utilized was mind mapping.      Application    I wanted to understand the culture that made up the business and intricacies of this software  sector composed of consultants and developers. I wanted to understand these highly  specialized employees, how they work together, how they work individually, how they organized  their work and get their job done. Getting into the culture of the individual, in terms of their work  habits and their specialization is in part utilizing ethnography. Highly specialized individuals  working on a highly specialized software in the industry, has indeed created its own intricacies  and way of work. And that was my goal, because in order for me to be able to “fix their process”,  the process needs to work for them, understand them deeply, otherwise, the process will be  ineffective and unused.    Insight    My key findings, is you cannot create a “one-size” fits all process. It’s not an assembly line  process I had to build. It was for highly specialized and skilled workers composed of consultants  and developers, that have their own idiosyncrasies, goals and “personas”. Mind mapping  allowed me to understand the individual, and more importantly what triggers them to be  effective, and collectively, the process should be able to not only cater to their individual needs,

but also unify them together, because only through team collaboration can they accomplish the  work and become successful.     The process required agile principles and process. While some preferred kanban, some  preferred organizing their work in other ways. A person in a client facing role requirements were  different from a software developer. The different styles of working because of their profession  and personality. But the process needed to bring them together. The three different types of  personas I found were: the socialist, the creative, the professional. The socialist was the busiest  and was always on call building client relations and the creative was very loose in regards to  deadlines but that’s how he fed his creative juices, to build amazing code work. The  professional was a consultant that did his work in silence. The most organized of them all but  did not want any client interactions just let him do his work in peace and he’ll deliver every time.  Imagine those three types of personas collaborating together and make that successful. If you  do not understand your audience you will never be able to create an effective and efficient  process. The key to a successful process is that the users must be able to use it like it was  second nature. That’s why journey mapping and Mind mapping was so crucial because it  allowed me to do just that.      Approach    Mind mapping allowed me to understand the type of work, their personalities, and what makes  them successful individually. The project management tool they used, provided a plethora of  ways to accomplish their work. The problem is, without a process in place, those plethora of  functionalities are rendered useless. I developed a new process, but because I understood each  and everyone’s needs, I approached this new process of working as unfinished, simply a  foundation, for them to “own the process”. The new process is never-finished, they will own it.  They will make it their own, to their likings. It is a living, breathing, and growing process that will  mature, as they begin to start using it. To date, the process has become very effective, and it  has now matured to our next phase/goal, which is now developing Key Performance Indicators  or KPIs. Standardization and streamlining processes and innovation are the key pillars to  growth, and I believe I have successfully addressed the former, to make way for the latter, with  the key component of using mind mapping. But you must understand the irony of streamlining  which seems the opposite of catering to individualism. That I may say was the main challenge -  it started out to be a mystery, but because of techniques like Mind mapping it became a very  complex puzzle instead and not a mystery no more!

