Capstone project

for the course ‘Design Thinking for Innovation’, Coursera

Date: 02/10/2020

Reflection: MindMaps

Challenge

My client is an international trading company that sells warehouse equipment, in the B2B market,

that operates across 3 regions markets and has a supply chain consisting of the central warehouse

and secondary regional warehouses. My challenge was to develop a strategy to increase sales, using

the potential of big data and advanced analytics.

Selection

To develop a strategy, I used a mindmap, because it allowed me to work out solutions in different

directions/areas and on a different scale. I also used the MECE pricnice to make sure there are no

missing spots and/or overlaps.

Application

I started working in several directions, eg, you can increase sales by increasing the number of clients

or the number of sales per client, then the number of sales per client - by increasing the number of

items in the invoice or increasing the number of lines in the invoice (cross sales). Further, for each

option, I developed a solution, eg, for the last option I offered a recommendation sales system for a

commercial retail site.

Insight

After developing the map, I realized that some of mine solutions may solve several problems

simultaneously and may work cross-functional. This allowed me to identify the most effective

solutions and assigned them higher priority, all of which was a base for the strategic road map.

What did I learn here - before the course, I used a decision tree structure and it was difficult for me

to perceive it visually. If a solution is structured like a mind map, I can work faster and more

efficiently. In addition, it allowed me to collect information in 2 categories - primary and secondary.

Approach

I designed the mind map using drawings app in Google Docs, that took a huge amount of time. Next

time I would use a specialized software or applications, for example, Google diagrams.net, that

makes it faster and easier to design, as well it has pre-developed notations.

