Reflection: Visualisation and Mind Mapping

Challenge  One of the key challenges while I was building my own tech community in our college was  bringing different areas of people together and finding value as a group of people contributing to  a community.It was quite difficult initially as most of them were clueless on how they can  contribute to such a multi disciplinary community where every member has a different field of  experience than the other.My goal was to build a  mixed community with people of different  disciplines coming together to build various projects and solve real world problems.The  challenge was to align everybody to a common goal i.e.  to contribute great ideas and convert  them into projects with the community.    Selection  While meeting these different people, I had recognised the fact that they were all ready to join  only if they could find some value for themselves by being a part of the community.So to  understand these expectations from these experts in different fields,I used the design tools  called visualisation and mind mapping.The reasons to choose these tools was the realistic  inference that we may avail at the end of the process and having the potential members to  decide for the value they were searching and have them involved in self discovering their  organisational goals.      Application  We invited all these different people to a small workshop and asked them to visualise  themselves in an organisation and picture it in the form of images or flow diagrams to the path  they want to acquire.The participants were then asked to explain the visuals that they had  created.  In the second part of workshop,the participants were divided into different groups in such a  manner that each group had a diverse set of people.Each group was asked to list  simple  problems in their daily life and come up with different solutions by having a group discussion.  In the third phase ,the participants were asked to write what they lacked in their current way if  work.These writings were aligned to the first phase visuals with the drawings and visuals they  had drawn in the first phase as the destination and how they can bridge it by solving simple  problems with a community giving them a broad way of thinking.The grouping of these ideas  and forming maps helped the participants clearly define the value they were trying to seek.      Insights  The workshop had given significant insights on what the members were looking for and  expecting from a community.And we found that almost 90 % of them were looking for social life  while working on real life projects.The visuals portrayed that many of them wanted acceptance  and collective understanding from people they work with.The members looked for work  satisfaction and a support system while contributing to a great cause.The workshops also

helped a lot of people bond while having the group discussions and many of these parts turned  fun and enriching for the participants as they could find that social space while designing some  of the most creative ideas.    Approach  The approach used was very open ended and result driven.Having the stakeholders involve  in  designing the organisational goals helped them figure out their purpose and therefore helped us  in bringing these different people to work on a common cause.Hence the design tools had  helped us redefine our challenge and improve on the feedbacks received.


Reflection : Visualisation and Mind Mapping Challenge One of the key challenges while I was building my own tech community in our college was bringing different areas of people together and finding value as a group of people contributing to a community . It was quite difficult initially as most of them were clueless on how they can contribute to such a multi disciplinary community where every member has a different field of experience than the other . My goal was to build a mixed community with people of different disciplines coming together to build various projects and solve real world problems . The challenge was to align everybody to a common goal i.e. to contribute great ideas and convert them into projects with the community . Selection While meeting these different people , I had recognised the fact that they were all ready to join only if they could find some value for themselves by being a part of the community . So to understand these expectations from these experts in different fields , I used the design tools called visualisation and mind mapping . The reasons to choose these tools was the realistic inference that we may avail at the end of the process and having the potential members to decide for the value they were searching and have them involved in self discovering their organisational goals . Application We invited all these different people to a small workshop and asked them to visualise themselves in an organisation and picture it in the form of images or flow diagrams to the path they want to acquire . The participants were then asked to explain the visuals that they had created . In the second part of workshop , the participants were divided into different groups in such a manner that each group had a diverse set of people . Each group was asked to list simple problems in their daily life and come up with different solutions by having a group discussion . In the third phase , the participants were asked to write what they lacked in their current way if work . These writings were aligned to the first phase visuals with the drawings and visuals they had drawn in the first phase as the destination and how they can bridge it by solving simple problems with a community giving them a broad way of thinking . The grouping of these ideas and forming maps helped the participants clearly define the value they were trying to seek . Insights The workshop had given significant insights on what the members were looking for and expecting from a community . And we found that almost 90 % of them were looking for social life while working on real life projects . The visuals portrayed that many of them wanted acceptance and collective understanding from people they work with . The members looked for work satisfaction and a support system while contributing to a great cause . The workshops also helped a lot of people bond while having the group discussions and many of these parts turned fun and enriching for the participants as they could find that social space while designing some of the most creative ideas . Approach The approach used was very open ended and result driven . Having the stakeholders involve in designing the organisational goals helped them figure out their purpose and therefore helped us in bringing these different people to work on a common cause . Hence the design tools had helped us redefine our challenge and improve on the feedbacks received .