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Mind Mapping in Pharmaceutical Product Development

Challenge & Selection

In my field, pharmaceutical product development is a challenging complex problem. The

complexity increases with the need and involvement of multi-disciplinary teams with varying

scientific/educational backgrounds. Together, we are required to develop a robust process, which

when followed results in reproducible quality products. This demand systematic and in-depth

understanding of “the process”. The process involves a complex interplay of properties of input

raw materials and processing conditions.

Often such a process involves multiple steps, wherein output of each step is input for succeeding

step. Deviation in any step can affect overall quality of final product. I selected mind mapping,

design thinking tool to understand and elaborate the process to the multi-functional teams. Mind

mapping help to understand all the elements of the problem, in this case the complex process, and

find the relationships among them.

Application

Based on the preliminary understanding, first we prepared a flow chart of the process, starting with

raw materials followed my multiple sequential processing steps to obtain the product. Then we

started delineating all related material/process attributes for each step. We had multiple rounds of

brainstorming on the possible relations between different pair of attributes and color coding them.

This helped us to prepare the mind-map which has all the elements and their relations,

comprehensively.

Insight and Approach

This prototype mind-map was then discussed with all multi-functional teams and improvised. It

helped everyone to visualize the process flow with utmost clarity and define critical process

controls. Wherever required, for complex intermediate steps of the process, stepwise mind-maps

were prepared. Based on the mind map we were able to prepare better experimental designs and

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obtain key insights to finalize critical process conditions.  Once finalized the mind-map became

the base for all discussions during the development life cycle of the product.

Since the mind-map brought clarity and helped understanding of a complex process, we decided

to practice preparation of mind-maps as the first activity before starting experimentation. We

believe it brings end-to-end clarity and helps planning all the requirements in one-go. Further it

can be explained very well to multi-disciplinary teams with varying scientific/educational

backgrounds.

