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Reflection – Mind mapping

Challenge  I work in the maritime industry as a Vessel Manager. Safety management on board the  Company’s 15 ships is one of the core parts of my job. Safety on board ships comprises of  many work areas, one of which is the mooring systems.

Mooring systems, in layman’s term, are the systems used to moor the ship alongside a jetty.  These mooring systems are complex for someone not trained in their use. Their  requirements are governed by certain recommendations drawn by some apex bodies. If the  recommendations are complied with thoroughly, mooring operations can be deemed to be  fairly safe.

To ensure thorough compliance, the Company requires a software platform that would  provide predictive and prescriptive data analysis. Such software is to be developed by an  outsourced team who is not familiar with the maritime industry. The team members do not  understand the terms and jargons used. My challenge is to put forward the requirement to  this team to get the best platform developed. The complex situation makes this  requirement a “mystery” for the software team while for me it is merely a “puzzle”. (Ref.  video lecture - What Is Design Thinking? Hear from the Experts).

Selection  For this challenge I used the Mind mapping tool. I selected this tool to define my  requirement to the software team because I wanted to involve them from the “What is”  stage. Also, the quantity of data was large and mind mapping would help us look for  patterns which we can then use to develop the platform. This was something creative that  we were trying to make and as David Kelley is quoted in the video lecture on Mind mapping  tool, “When I'm trying to do something creative, I make a mind-map.”

Application  Just like the example of “Yard Sale” in video lecture “Mind Mapping Tool”, I took the  software developers on a tour. Through video tutorials and some other material I compiled,  I showed them what mooring systems are and how the mooring operations on ships are  carried out. I then displayed the procedures and forms currently in use on board the ships.  This gave them a fair idea of “What is”. They then observed and shared their insights. We  put together the pieces and came up with the design criteria for our platform.

Insight  I was fairly confident of getting good results from this exercise. I like to use the mind  mapping tool for various other areas of my life. This was the first time I had involved a team  to generate ideas and to come up with the “what if”. However, as we proceeded with the  complex project, I realised that I got the team involved too early. I should’ve defined “What  wows” instead of involving them at the transition from “what is” to “what if”. They had to  learn the jargons outside their industry rather than applying their core expertise.

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Approach  I would approach this challenge differently next time. I would arrive at “What wows” and  then use the “Visualisation” tool combined with some storytelling to explain my  requirements to the software development team. With no prior knowledge about ships and  the various systems, understanding the jargons itself became overwhelming for them. This  led to different understanding of same concepts and hence resulted in a non compatible  platform. Visualisation tool would help me explain them “what wows” and to get them on  the same page. They can then come up with the best ideas as per their expertise, helping us  to arrive at “what works” more efficiently.

