Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge:

My challenge was one that fit perfectly within the criteria for one of the tools.  I work for an  organization that is building a new software for our industry.  It is a very complex and in-depth tool,  which looks to streamline the profession while providing an overall more effective product.  This project  has around 40 different people working on it, all in different capacities.  My role is designing much of the  methodology around the specific items which will make this tool “cutting-edge”.  As such, the elements  that my team and I design do not exist in any other tool today, therefore we must solve problems that  no other tool has been able to do.  One module in particular has plagued the industry for years, and has  effectively been set aside for the past year because of the complexity.  It was my job to figure it out.

Selection:

The tool that I selected was the Mind Map.  The reason I chose this tool was because there were so  many different elements that had to fit together.  Essentially, my module has to take inputs from several  other groups, package it in a way that made sense, and deliver something tangible to our users.  Since  there were so many different elements, I chose the Mind Map as a way to gather all of my thoughts and  used it to identify patterns and themes.

Application:

I began the process by focusing on my main objective.  While there are going to be several subsequent  versions of this product, we needed to start somewhere.  What was the ultimate mission?  I decided  that there were two goals, 1) to address why it was needed in the first place (to fit the regulations of the  industry); and, 2) to lay the groundwork for a better approach using evolving technologies.  This was  tricky, as we needed to think about what we can and should do today and where we ultimately want to  go.

I began designing the Mind Map by branching out into the concepts that we knew we wanted to include.   This first layer was at a high level what needed to be accomplished.  This included 6 high level concepts  that my team and I believed would encapsulate all of the individual elements that would be necessary.   From there, I branched out into more specific functionality, including both elements that existed today  and elements we wanted to include next.  These included small, simplistic visualizations which helped  set the stage and guide conversation.  My final layer included the system requirements, showing what  we could do today vs. what system requirements were necessary first.

Once the Mind Map was designed, it was easy to start grouping different concepts together based on  patterns in the data.  This made it easier to see 1) what elements fit together from a design standpoint,  and; 2) what elements had similar dependencies.  From here, we were able to start prioritizing where to  start.

Insight & Approach:

What I have learned from this activity is that without the Mind Map it would have been extremely  difficult to capture all of the necessary elements and effectively prioritize where we should focus our

efforts.  As I built out the Mind Map, I had started from an initial list that I created prior to taking this  course.  As I built it out, I was able to identify more elements, and develop a clearer picture of how they  all fit together.  Additionally, it was much easier to determine which elements fit together and how to  prioritize based on ‘what wows’ and what we were able to do today.  Because this project had so many  different elements and there were so many different directions we could have gone, the Mind Map was  extremely effective in gathering all of my errant thoughts and putting them together in a way that made  sense.

