Challenges and Selection    The project statement I was assigned had so may uncertainties be the with the product solution,  market choice, demographic areas, segment of customers – all so varied and placed in an  uncertain environment. Of course, the solution in my mind at this stage from the product offerings  our organization has, needed to be customized once I could frame the problem statement  objectively. That implies, I needed design criteria to begin with. I needed to learn the pains of  customers and stakeholders.   The current reality was captured from interviews, surveys and conferences. The whole data  collected seemed vague, not defining any relation with the value chain until transformed or  mapped. I therefore thought of landscaping the different customers – end users, integrators,  funding agencies and governmental bodies, using mind mapping tool. Mind mapping tool could  get me insights from the data drawing some visuals which led to the draft of the problem  statement.    Application    The data collected during these couple of events – interviews, surveys, conferences had to  shaped properly. There used to be recurring meetings within the team members to comprehend  the data which led to clustering the data for a specific class of stakeholders, identifying that there  were overlaps amongst the stakeholders and the possible apprehensions of the stakeholders in  the road map of the project. As a next step, we invited one of the stakeholders to our meetings, a  few numbers of times. Such meetings paved an opportunity to get close to mutual understanding  of what they are looking as a problem solution. While our team worked on idea, we invited another  stakeholder to our meetings and discovered there were some commonalities towards the solution  which these stakeholders were looking for.   These insights from the different class of stakeholders unveiled the value chain customers. The  identification of value chain brought up the design criteria for a specific class of stakeholder.      Insights and Approach    As a takeaway, mind mapping tool really helped me from a black box to the first draft of flow chart  of product/ solution offering identifying the inputs, outputs. Though in my case, the solution idea  is still parked within the organization before we get on to the market place, it is still the relished  idea.  The team and peers do feel the need to iterate to get to the final solution, so till the organization  gets ready to play in the market place, I feel that design thinking mapping different minds can be  a good start.


Challenges and Selection The project statement I was assigned had so may uncertainties be the with the product solution , market choice , demographic areas , segment of customers – all so varied and placed in an uncertain environment . Of course , the solution in my mind at this stage from the product offerings our organization has , needed to be customized once I could frame the problem statement objectively . That implies , I needed design criteria to begin with . I needed to learn the pains of customers and stakeholders . The current reality was captured from interviews , surveys and conferences . The whole data collected seemed vague , not defining any relation with the value chain until transformed or mapped . I therefore thought of landscaping the different customers – end users , integrators , funding agencies and governmental bodies , using mind mapping tool . Mind mapping tool could get me insights from the data drawing some visuals which led to the draft of the problem statement . Application The data collected during these couple of events – interviews , surveys , conferences had to shaped properly . There used to be recurring meetings within the team members to comprehend the data which led to clustering the data for a specific class of stakeholders , identifying that there were overlaps amongst the stakeholders and the possible apprehensions of the stakeholders in the road map of the project . As a next step , we invited one of the stakeholders to our meetings , a few numbers of times . Such meetings paved an opportunity to get close to mutual understanding of what they are looking as a problem solution . While our team worked on idea , we invited another stakeholder to our meetings and discovered there were some commonalities towards the solution which these stakeholders were looking for . These insights from the different class of stakeholders unveiled the value chain customers . The identification of value chain brought up the design criteria for a specific class of stakeholder . Insights and Approach As a takeaway , mind mapping tool really helped me from a black box to the first draft of flow chart of product/ solution offering identifying the inputs , outputs . Though in my case , the solution idea is still parked within the organization before we get on to the market place , it is still the relished idea . The team and peers do feel the need to iterate to get to the final solution , so till the organization gets ready to play in the market place , I feel that design thinking mapping different minds can be a good start .