Problem space prioritization using Mind mapping

Challenge

As a Product owner, I was given a problem and asked to find possible solutions. As I interviewed the potentially  impacted users, I realized that the problem space is a lot bigger and impacts various user groups, so I decided to  interview all the relevant user groups involved. During this process lot of data was collected, and different  problems emerged faced by different user groups with a varying magnitude of customer impact. All this was part  of the ‘What is’ process. There was no common alignment and consensus in the organization on which problems  to focus upon. Given the varied nature of the problems and a limited number of resources, it was necessary to  prioritize these problems to decide which are the most important problems to focus upon.

Selection

I decided to use the Mind-mapping technique to prioritize the different problems based on value and to have  common alignment across all the stakeholders. Mind mapping helped us organize the information collected and  allowed us to answer the question ‘what value is added by solving this problem’. This would ensure that as a  team, we are trying to focus on the most valuable problems.

Below video lecture, describes the importance of mind mapping to have common alignment across all  stakeholders

https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking-innovation/lecture/lsFRa/mind-mapping-tool

Application

We recreated a map of all the problem spaces, which included

-  Brief description of the problem

-  User group which is facing the problem

-  Video evidence coming from the user interviews relevant to that problem.

-  Description of the magnitude of pain caused to the customers and internal users

-  Urgency indicators – Any indication on timelines on when this problem needs to be fixed.

To have common alignment across the organization on what are the most important problems to be solved I  organized a workshop with all the stakeholders to go through the map of problems and get inputs on their  definition of value generated by solving the problem. The map of problem spaces was shared as pre-read with all  the participants, and I asked them to go through the map as a preparation for the workshop. During the workshop  the map of the problems was organized one large board, participants were organized in groups and each group  was given sticky notes of different colors than the other group and were asked to answer the below questions:

-  Do you feel the problem is a real one?

-  What do you think is the value generated by solving this problem?

-  What would be the impact if the problem is not solved

-  Any other comments

After each group had given their inputs, all groups were gathered and then each group presented their views on  the problems. This helped build a shared understanding of problems and how each group thought about the value  generated by solving a problem relative to other problems. It became evident during the exercise that there are  three main important problems that will add value and we were able to assign top priority to them immediately.

We were able to discover the benefits of solving these problems for user groups which no one had thought of  earlier.

Insight

I learned that by applying this technique it was very easy to declutter complex problem areas and to bring  transparency that there is no one problem to be solved but there are multiple problems. This technique also  helped us to converge on the most important problems and to have a shared understanding and consensus on  value definition across different stakeholder departments which meant we had their support and buy-in as we  went further to solve these problems. We were able to discover new benefits of solving a problem that we didn’t  think about earlier.

Approach

This technique really proved beneficial for our and would use it again. The key challenge is to bring the right mix  of diverse stakeholders who can provide valuable inputs during this process. During our exercise, we didn’t  include the customer support group and only later realized that they too had valuable inputs. Next time; would  ensue to check the list of participants to ensure diverse inputs.

