Madina Eno

Course title- design Thinking for Innovation.

Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge

Mind mapping is not a new subject to me as being a Project Management Professional I have used this  tool and has been using regularly in my professional work. During data gathering for new projects I had  applied the techniques of focus groups, brainstorming, mind mapping and intervening. The challenge I  received in my project to resolve the complaints of sub-contractors are not getting paid by the main  contractor. The mechanism available in our existing system is that the main contractor is filing for  payment is required to submit a letter to us that they have cleared all the payments due to their  subcontractors. But the submitted invoice documents are so huge, the accountants are forgetting to  check whether the contractor has submitted the letter or not. The task was given to me and I applied  the mind mapping technique by gathering the entire team involved in invoice processing and asked  different questions, why we are missing to check, how we can ensure that the payments are made.  During the detailed discussion several ideas developed and implemented.my challenges included,  empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. Mind mapping helped in getting the creativity, thinking,  team work and business.

Selection

My problem was a new and require to  gather ideas and hence I chose this mind mapping tool. The  video by Raaz Gupta is a reference for my application, as narrated by Mairan, Mind mapping is one of  the most powerful tools in the design thinker's toolbox. It's used to look for patterns, it's used to look for  insights, that lead to more creative solutions to your design challenge. In my challenge it is a best tool  because it gave the opportunity to the audience to figure out how the team can ensure that the sub- contractors and material suppliers are paid by the main contractor and we as a client what mechanisms  to apply as a controlling point on this matter.

Application

The reference of my views are based on the video presentation made by Raaz Gupta, professor  @Darden University. The design thinking process consists of four steps, what is m what if, what wows  and what works. During what is, we formed the teams and went through applying the design thinking  tools covering the four what’s. The first one –

what is:- what is “mind mapping” and how it is applied in our case

Mind mapping is looking for patterns and insights in a large quantity of data you collected during your  exploration of what is the current reality. The problem was to identify by projecting what enforcements  can be added to ensure payments to sub-contractors by JLT: Company General Use main  contractor. We figured different options and gathered the data. The goal is to establish criteria for the  what-if idea generation phase.

What if: -

This is a idea generation phase. In my case I got all my stakeholders in a meeting room, provided them  clip charts and asked them to create what scenarios can be applied to ensure the payments are received  by the sub-contractor

What wows: and what works –

Reference is my learning of innovation challenges of George and the success of Jeff. In Me You health  utilized Chris and his partner’s way of idea generating questions. Based on this learning generated ideas  and gathered information and as a result come with a solution to add “and enforcement tab in SAP  workflow action where in the invoice approval workflow initiator must check the box that he has seen  the letter submitted by the contractor that he has paid all dues to his sub-contractors. And further it is  decided that the contractors shall obtain signatures from the sub-contractors that they have received  the payments

Insight and approach

After conducting mind mapping and applying all the design tools of my challenges, I gained insight that  it is a good way to have idea generation that has led to success in my problem solving. In my next  approach, I intend to utilize external users in the mind mapping and further benchmark my activity with  other departments within project management team. Reference, I used in my above exercise. • Napkin  pitch • Preparing our mind to innovate what is, what if, what wows and what works • The big idea •  Needs/benefits • Business class.

