Mind Mapping

Challenge & Selection    Mind mapping is a great way to explain thoughts visually and to help stakeholders represent  what’s on their mind about some challenge or idea. I work with clients from companies of all  sizes, from startups to large companies, and very often we are given challenges that come in  the form of requirements or a defined idea from someone, or some team, with little insights  from users or even from coworkers. We usually run workshops with all stakeholders to make  them see that writing down a list of requirements is not the first thing you should do to start  projects effectively. It’s obviously one way to scope the project, in order to get quotes from  providers, but clients should take a step back and start by thinking on the real needs first,  before diving in a technical approach. To get stakeholders started in thinking together in  possible solutions for their challenges, mind mapping is an easy tool that comes naturally for  them after seeing a couple of examples.    Application    An interesting project I’ve worked recently was the definition of an intranet for a large  company. As you can imagine, large companies have several departments and, therefore,  different needs for each one. Trying to understand what are each team needs for an intranet  is quite a challenge and, to get everyone on board in the definition process is crucial. So we  started by doing workshops with people from each department, getting them all together in  the same room so they could be aware of each others needs. We chose mind mapping so  they could communicate to each others what was their idea on what an intranet should  provide them. We divided them in 4 groups of 4 people, and we started by asking them to do  the exercise alone first, so each one could align some thoughts before sharing them. We  asked them questions like “Having the intranet on the center, what would you draw or write  around the intranet that you consider important for you? Can you group concepts and be  more specific as you detail what each concept consists?”. After that, we sticked all mind  maps on the all and everyone shared their ideas. After a first round of sharing thoughts,  groups started working together on a mind map, trying to reach a common version for each  department. That made them present, defend or give up on some ideas. For these second  round we encourage them to use post-its to write down all their ideas. After getting all ideas  on the wall, they started by organizing them in logical categories so they can hang each idea  on one category. It’s a powerful way specially to get all stakeholders in one room sharing  their ideas and working together on a shared vision.      Insight & Approach    It’s amazing to see how people think with a pen and paper on their hands. They always start  a bit shy but as soon they realise there’s no right or wrong answer they start feeling more

confident on sharing their thoughts to everyone. And that’s one of the great achievements of  any stakeholders workshop. With mind mapping we were able to reach an understanding on  what each department needed on the intranet in order to improve their way of working and  socialize with fellow colleagues. It was also a way to find all teams had common needs, and  as soon they discovered that together, it was easier to get them thinking together to develop  a set of ideas that could fit both teams needs. And also, and most important, people feel like  they are part of the solution, that they are contributing for the project success rather than  waiting several months for a provider to show them a ready to use intranet without listening  them. It’s crucial to have everyone on board since the start and listening to what people say.

