Reflection "Mind Mapping"

Challenge & Selection

One of my favorite tools is Mind Mapping. Generally, I use it when I feel that  we have collected a lot of different data from different stakeholders:  customers, partners, participants and so on. For me, Mind Mapping is a sort  of the bridge between what is and what if  phase: we use it when we are  eager to begin generating ideas.     I’m a Product Designer for a consulting company so I use this tool often with  my clients while exploring different opportunities to innovate within their  company. I love this tool because it lets a lot of place to the imagination and  helps participants to understand the context of the customers lives instead  of seeing only business context.

Application

I start this exercise by laying all the data we have collected for everybody to  see it: for example, the good idea is to use a big light room. Visualize this  information helps to display the key components of what we have learned  during what is phase. Then, I invite different people and seat them at small

teams. I try to select very different people for this exercises. The only criteria is  to take curious and open-minded people, who are really interesting in what  you are doing.     Once everybody arrived, I distribute paper, stickers, markers, and  whiteboards to teams and explain the exercise. The important thing to do  here is to explain that they are here to help us to move forward and that  there are no good or wrong answers. Sometimes, I ask them to take off their  jackets and ties because it helps to put everyone on the same level and to be  more open-minded while working together.     Then, I ask everybody to make a tour of the room. Sometimes, I can give  them some additional explications about the information they can see.  Generally, this tour takes ten or fifteen minutes long, depending on the  quantity of information we have collected. Generally, while making this tour,

I ask participants not to take notes. After the tour, I propose them to make  another tour without speaking to one another, and this time to take notes of  any learning that in their opinion can help generate new ideas.

Next, I ask them to return to their teams and to share, sort and cluster these  ideas. Then I ask each team to take one of the themes they have identified  and to share it with everybody and put stickers related to this theme on the  whiteboard. People from other teams add their stickers from the related  theme and so one. The process is repeated until all themes identified are put  on the whiteboard. Once the job is done, together we identify insights  related to each cluster.    The last step of this exercise is to transform all the insights identified into  design criteria. I ask the participants how our design should be if everything  there possible? Depending on the number of participants, together on in  teams, be create the list of design criteria that will help us to generate ideas  later.     I love this Mind Mapping exercise because it helps make people work  together and to share their creativity.

Insight & Approach

What I have learned from conducting this exercise with several groups is that  working together is the best way to find the most important insights. I think  so because by putting people with different backgrounds together we can  gain from their different experiences and ways of thinking.     Also, these type of activities makes people enjoy and help them to  understand that innovation is a very interesting process. That helps them to  realize that there are not « creative » and « analytical » persons and that  everyone can be creative, if only we let us being so.     I think one of the more difficult things here is to make people accept to  come to the workshop and help them to gain confidence. This is one of my  favorite workshops and I hope to be able to continue facilitating it during my  designer's career.

