Mind Mapping

Challenge    I am a member of the student organization at my University. We have many exchange

students and most of them struggle to fit in our society. Our team decided to improve this

situation in order to facilitate the process of their adaptation to our culture. We had not the

faintest idea what the exact troubles foreign students met in our country as none of us have

ever experienced living in a new unknown environment with a different culture. Therefore,

we started from the “5 Whys” approach in order to determine the main cause of students’

discomfort. When we found the main issue we still had to work out the solution. That was the

case when the ​Mind Mapping​ ​tool​ came in handy.     Selection    The problem we had, needed a creative approach to be solved. We didn’t know exactly

which solution might work. Analytics could not help here as we did not have any data

connected to our scope. So we opted for mind mapping as a main approach in our kind of

research. With the help of this tool we could collect enough information and insights from our

future customers.     Application    The first thing we did was brainstorming. Our goal was to define initial areas where foreign

students might meet difficulties. We decided to do so in order to facilitate the process of

mind mapping and give the participants the starting point for their ideas.     We had two types of participants. The first group consisted of 30 foreign students, who

provided first-hand knowledge on the difficulties they had encountered. The second group

consisted of 20 local volunteer students.     The Mind Mapping process was also divided into several steps. Firstly, on the walls in the

classroom we arranged the problem areas we found and asked the participants from the first

group (foreign students) to put down on the stickers the difficulties they had already

experienced or are afraid to experience, and the things they would like to discover or

improve during their exchange term. The same task was issued to the local students. The

only difference was that they needed to ​imagine what kind of issues can the foreign

students meet from the perspective of people who are aware of the nuances of local life.

Then they were divided into groups of 5 (3 foreign + 2 local students) to share their

experiences and clusterize them on the board. After they finished we took some time to

generalize their thoughts and make the conclusion.

Insight    Our team found out that the mind mapping can be a very handy tool if you want to discover

insights of your real customers and be able to clusterize their answers and get general

concepts on what the real problems are or what they would like to achieve. It can be used on

your customers to facilitate the interaction between different people with different points of

view and make a great fusion of their ideas.     Approach    The ideas of the second group were mostly based on assumptions and therefore not always

met the real issues. After our research we understood that it would be better to change the

role of local students in the mind mapping. We should have involved only foreign students to

collect the information about the difficulties and then after generalization of their answers we

should have held another session of mind mapping with local students who could provide us

with the ideas on all kinds of assistance the locals are ready and eager to provide.     Another type of students we should have involved in the first part of the mind mapping

process are local students who have already experienced an exchange opportunity. They

might be the best idea-generators as not only do they know the issues foreign students may

meet (as they have experienced these issues during their own exchange), but they also

know the nuances of living in our country.


Mind Mapping Challenge I am a member of the student organization at my University . We have many exchange students and most of them struggle to fit in our society . Our team decided to improve this situation in order to facilitate the process of their adaptation to our culture . We had not the faintest idea what the exact troubles foreign students met in our country as none of us have ever experienced living in a new unknown environment with a different culture . Therefore , we started from the “ 5 Why s ” approach in order to determine the main cause of students ’ discomfort . When we found the main issue we still had to work out the solution . That was the case when the ​Mind Mapping​ ​tool​ came in handy . Selection The problem we had , needed a creative approach to be solved . We did n’t know exactly which solution might work . Analytics could not help here as we did not have any data connected to our scope . So we opted for mind mapping as a main approach in our kind of research . With the help of this tool we could collect enough information and insights from our future customers . Application The first thing we did was brainstorming . Our goal was to define initial areas where foreign students might meet difficulties . We decided to do so in order to facilitate the process of mind mapping and give the participants the starting point for their ideas . We had two types of participants . The first group consisted of 30 foreign students , who provided first - hand knowledge on the difficulties they had encountered . The second group consisted of 20 local volunteer students . The Mind Mapping process was also divided into several steps . Firstly , on the walls in the classroom we arranged the problem areas we found and asked the participants from the first group ( foreign students ) to put down on the stickers the difficulties they had already experienced or are afraid to experience , and the things they would like to discover or improve during their exchange term . The same task was issued to the local students . The only difference was that they needed to ​imagine what kind of issues can the foreign students meet from the perspective of people who are aware of the nuances of local life . Then they were divided into groups of 5 ( 3 foreign + 2 local students ) to share their experiences and clusterize them on the board . After they finished we took some time to generalize their thoughts and make the conclusion . Insight Our team found out that the mind mapping can be a very handy tool if you want to discover insights of your real customers and be able to clusterize their answers and get general concepts on what the real problems are or what they would like to achieve . It can be used on your customers to facilitate the interaction between different people with different points of view and make a great fusion of their ideas . Approach The ideas of the second group were mostly based on assumptions and therefore not always met the real issues . After our research we understood that it would be better to change the role of local students in the mind mapping . We should have involved only foreign students to collect the information about the difficulties and then after generalization of their answers we should have held another session of mind mapping with local students who could provide us with the ideas on all kinds of assistance the locals are ready and eager to provide . Another type of students we should have involved in the first part of the mind mapping process are local students who have already experienced an exchange opportunity . They might be the best idea - generators as not only do they know the issues foreign students may meet ( as they have experienced these issues during their own exchange ) , but they also know the nuances of living in our country .