Reflection – Mind Mapping Tool  By Tatsuya Kobayashi

Challenge

I work as a development manager in a multinational company and my challenge is to find  possibilities of reducing costs by implementing improvements in the development  processes chain. By doing that it is necessary to check with all the numerous developers  we have in our development teams the difficulties and possible chances we have to  improve the development process. Furthermore, the involvement of managers and  internal customers are as well necessary in order to guarantee that the changes in the  development process chain will not negatively affect the quality of our results. I have  researched and collected a large quantity of information and ideas about where to act  and what to improve in the development chain by interviewing stakeholders, customers,  developers and the management. As well the process operation has been reviewed and  analyzed in order to capture important data to consider in the data collection.

Selection

Mind Mapping is the term used for the process of looking for patterns in a large quantity  of data collected during the exploration of What is. I have chosen to work with mind  mapping tool as I have already collected a huge amount of data from different sources  and I needed to organize them in order to find patterns and insights about the current  situation around the problem of costs in the development process. Nevertheless, it was  also important to align among all the involved parties in advanced around the ideas  raised during the exploration step and reach a common understanding of design criteria  to be developed and discussed in brainstorming sessions.

Application

Due to the pandemic situation, it was not possible to reunite all the team and  stakeholders physically together in a room in order to present the data collected and  summarized for the project. However, an online group session was organized via  Microsoft Teams and with support of an online collaborative tool where was possible to  create material to present the results from the research too all invitees. The collaborative  tool used for the group sessions was MIRO. All materials for the presentation were  prepared in different formats: as infographics, graphics, personas and process/data flow.

The online session was organized and developed in the following way:

1. Initially all the invitees were online in the same session in order to have a big

overview about the material presented. This was a sort of an explanation tour  about the content.

2. Afterwards, the invitees were split in three groups of 5 people for analyzing

and discussing the material and collecting thoughts to be presented later on  by a team member who is going to be the representative person of the group.  As MIRO is a collaborative tool which permits work with dashboards and  create cards and virtual stickers (as post its), each group creates its own  virtual cards in order to bring them to be presented.

3. After the 30 minutes session in groups, all invitees accessed the big session

with all invitees together. Each team member representative of each group  brought and presented their thoughts about reality based on the material they  have analyzed. After all the 3 groups have presented all your insights, all the  cards were disposed in a big online dashboard.

4. As a next step, I worked as a moderator in order to help everybody to cluster

the thoughts reunited and create meaningful insights about the thoughts  clustering.

5. After all insights have been clustered, the connections between clusters in

order to show inputs and outputs have been identified by the team. This final  step has been the longest one considering all the discussions around the  connections among the clustering.

6. Finally, all insights have been translated into criteria with the posed question:

“Based on what we have learned, if anything were possible our design  would…” and then each insight in the dashboard was captured and transcript  into a list of design criteria.

As the design criteria list has been created, it was distributed to all invitees and a  common agreement and understanding has been delivered to go on for the next step of  the design. Based on all the criteria and insights collected, brainstorming sessions were  organized to discuss ideas for solving the target problem.

Insight

I have learnt that organizing such kind of exercise (mind mapping tool), in a pandemic  situation where is not possible to physically reunite teams, and everything needs to be  performed online, Is quite a challenge. The biggest challenge was to decide which online  tool would be the most appropriate one where it would be possible to organize material,  presentation, discussion and collaboration all in one. Besides, mind mapping is a very  difficult tool to conduct at first, but is the most helpful and enlightening for bring different  points of view to the topics and bring everybody who needs to be involved in the project  to the same baseline. However, it was quite difficult too to keep all the invitees a bit far  away from bringing direct solutions to the problems besides getting the insights and  thoughts about the reality that it was in discussion.

Approach

I believe that, for future the same approach of Mind Mapping tool needs to be  implemented. I don’t see any alternative approach which could support in the same way  of Mind Mapping tool. The main and most important aspect of this tool is to share and  build insights together in team in order to have a common understanding of the reality of  the problem for pursuing solutions based on what all the stakeholders understand.  Perhaps, the timeframe of the online session and the lack of experience with the tools  were a bit confusing and challenging. However, the engagement of all participants during  the session and the discussions were highly appreciated and energizing.


Reflection – Mind Mapping Tool By Tatsuya Kobayashi Challenge I work as a development manager in a multinational company and my challenge is to find possibilities of reducing costs by implementing improvements in the development processes chain . By doing that it is necessary to check with all the numerous developers we have in our development teams the difficulties and possible chances we have to improve the development process . Furthermore , the involvement of managers and internal customers are as well necessary in order to guarantee that the changes in the development process chain will not negatively affect the quality of our results . I have researched and collected a large quantity of information and ideas about where to act and what to improve in the development chain by interviewing stakeholders , customers , developers and the management . As well the process operation has been reviewed and analyzed in order to capture important data to consider in the data collection . Selection Mind Mapping is the term used for the process of looking for patterns in a large quantity of data collected during the exploration of What is . I have chosen to work with mind mapping tool as I have already collected a huge amount of data from different sources and I needed to organize them in order to find patterns and insights about the current situation around the problem of costs in the development process . Nevertheless , it was also important to align among all the involved parties in advanced around the ideas raised during the exploration step and reach a common understanding of design criteria to be developed and discussed in brainstorming sessions . Application Due to the pandemic situation , it was not possible to reunite all the team and stakeholders physically together in a room in order to present the data collected and summarized for the project . However , an online group session was organized via Microsoft Teams and with support of an online collaborative tool where was possible to create material to present the results from the research too all invitees . The collaborative tool used for the group sessions was MIRO . All materials for the presentation were prepared in different formats : as infographics , graphics , personas and process / data flow . The online session was organized and developed in the following way : 1 . Initially all the invitees were online in the same session in order to have a big overview about the material presented . This was a sort of an explanation tour about the content . 2 . Afterwards , the invitees were split in three groups of 5 people for analyzing and discussing the material and collecting thoughts to be presented later on by a team member who is going to be the representative person of the group . As MIRO is a collaborative tool which permits work with dashboards and create cards and virtual stickers ( as post its ) , each group creates its own virtual cards in order to bring them to be presented . 3 . After the 30 minutes session in groups , all invitees accessed the big session with all invitees together . Each team member representative of each group brought and presented their thoughts about reality based on the material they have analyzed . After all the 3 groups have presented all your insights , all the cards were disposed in a big online dashboard . 4 . As a next step , I worked as a moderator in order to help everybody to cluster the thoughts reunited and create meaningful insights about the thoughts clustering . 5 . After all insights have been clustered , the connections between clusters in order to show inputs and outputs have been identified by the team . This final step has been the longest one considering all the discussions around the connections among the clustering . 6 . Finally , all insights have been translated into criteria with the posed question : “ Based on what we have learned , if anything were possible our design would … ” and then each insight in the dashboard was captured and transcript into a list of design criteria . As the design criteria list has been created , it was distributed to all invitees and a common agreement and understanding has been delivered to go on for the next step of the design . Based on all the criteria and insights collected , brainstorming sessions were organized to discuss ideas for solving the target problem . Insight I have learnt that organizing such kind of exercise ( mind mapping tool ) , in a pandemic situation where is not possible to physically reunite teams , and everything needs to be performed online , Is quite a challenge . The biggest challenge was to decide which online tool would be the most appropriate one where it would be possible to organize material , presentation , discussion and collaboration all in one . Besides , mind mapping is a very difficult tool to conduct at first , but is the most helpful and enlightening for bring different points of view to the topics and bring everybody who needs to be involved in the project to the same baseline . However , it was quite difficult too to keep all the invitees a bit far away from bringing direct solutions to the problems besides getting the insights and thoughts about the reality that it was in discussion . Approach I believe that , for future the same approach of Mind Mapping tool needs to be implemented . I do n’t see any alternative approach which could support in the same way of Mind Mapping tool . The main and most important aspect of this tool is to share and build insights together in team in order to have a common understanding of the reality of the problem for pursuing solutions based on what all the stakeholders understand . Perhaps , the timeframe of the online session and the lack of experience with the tools were a bit confusing and challenging . However , the engagement of all participants during the session and the discussions were highly appreciated and energizing .