Example - Mind Mapping

Challenge:    As I’m working for an international company as corporate student, traveling and working in  different cities and for various departments is quite normal. Also working abroad counts to this.  At the moment I’m working in Taiwan in a sales department. Here I’ve made the observation  that a lot of sellers need material for their client presentations and meetings or just need  different kind of information – especially in Chinese. Although they have a community but most  of them don’t use it and write mails to their managers to ask for material or they just collect  their own stuff in a cloud storage. When I had a first look on the community I also felt not very  comfortable with it. So the challenge was to find out: Why do they not use the community? and  What are the most important information/materials for the sellers, which should be in the  community and how should they be structured?. To clarify this challenge I thought it would be  the best idea to use the tool mind mapping.      Selection:    By using the tool mind mapping we can collect a lot of information from persons with various  roles, like the sellers, their managers and some leaders which should use the community. I’ve  selected this tool to make one big overview, with sticky notes and writings on a board. With  mind mapping it’s easy to cluster/order the data in separate rows, columns, and shapes and  structure it. After this it’s possible to gain important insights about the following actions and  real needs of the adoption and change process.      Application:    To use this tool in an effective way I have set up a meeting where all persons from the team could come  to an agile space. There they have taken sticky notes and write down their wishes/needs on this, like  client references, Chinese presentations, product demos or a section for news. The sticky notes also had  different colors, standing for the categories e.g. for the way of accessing the material. After putting this  on a wide board we could began to structure the content into different clusters. I’ve tried to find a  logical way in agreement to the participants to do this step by step. That brought a lot of success  because the participants were the real users and they have felt included. I could apply the tool  effectively and the participants really liked the session to share their thoughts for a better  understanding while there were putting on the sticky notes on the board. Now we can use the design  criteria to generate next ideas and follwing steps.

Insight    The problem here was really to bring all the stuff together and find one way to make it  attractive to a lot of people. Before I have not believe that mind mapping can bring such a big  impact on the insights we gained. Now I now that some things really were on the wrong place  or doesn’t fit the requirements of the sellers. So the main problem why they didn’t use the  community was the unstructured, not attractive build and also a lot of missing content. I can  understand that the information and especially the navigation of the community should be in  an intuitive way. So one surprising outcome was also the participation, because normally the  people are just sitting in a meeting and listen. But at this session everyone was very open  minded or rather getting it more time by time. With every thought of them I got the feeling that  the real change process is getting simpler, because of the widen knowledge. Design Thinking  makes the whole part of communication and interaction for a theme and within a team so great  and easy, that’s what I have learned now.       Approach     I think mind mapping can be applied in a lot of situation and cases. The most important thing  for me (and the team) was to getting this big overview which this tool definitely provides. I  think in this case I could not apply so much other tools, perhaps the tool visualization, because  when people are visualizing they have a better imagination. In general I think the choice of the  tool depends on a lot of factors for example how many persons are affected or are available.  Because I think mind mapping would not be effective in a room with 100 people, but in smaller  groups it works very well. In this case design thinking really helps me to understand the seller’s  problem and the next time I would use mind mapping again but also perhaps mix it with  elements of another tool.


Example - Mind Mapping Challenge : As I ’m working for an international company as corporate student , traveling and working in different cities and for various departments is quite normal . Also working abroad counts to this . At the moment I ’m working in Taiwan in a sales department . Here I ’ve made the observation that a lot of sellers need material for their client presentations and meetings or just need different kind of information – especially in Chinese . Although they have a community but most of them do n’t use it and write mails to their managers to ask for material or they just collect their own stuff in a cloud storage . When I had a first look on the community I also felt not very comfortable with it . So the challenge was to find out : Why do they not use the community ? and What are the most important information / materials for the sellers , which should be in the community and how should they be structured ? . To clarify this challenge I thought it would be the best idea to use the tool mind mapping . Selection : By using the tool mind mapping we can collect a lot of information from persons with various roles , like the sellers , their managers and some leaders which should use the community . I ’ve selected this tool to make one big overview , with sticky notes and writings on a board . With mind mapping it ’s easy to cluster / order the data in separate rows , columns , and shapes and structure it . After this it ’s possible to gain important insights about the following actions and real needs of the adoption and change process . Application : To use this tool in an effective way I have set up a meeting where all persons from the team could come to an agile space . There they have taken sticky notes and write down their wishes / needs on this , like client references , Chinese presentations , product demos or a section for news . The sticky notes also had different colors , standing for the categories e.g. for the way of accessing the material . After putting this on a wide board we could began to structure the content into different clusters . I ’ve tried to find a logical way in agreement to the participants to do this step by step . That brought a lot of success because the participants were the real users and they have felt included . I could apply the tool effectively and the participants really liked the session to share their thoughts for a better understanding while there were putting on the sticky notes on the board . Now we can use the design criteria to generate next ideas and follwing steps . Insight The problem here was really to bring all the stuff together and find one way to make it attractive to a lot of people . Before I have not believe that mind mapping can bring such a big impact on the insights we gained . Now I now that some things really were on the wrong place or does n’t fit the requirements of the sellers . So the main problem why they did n’t use the community was the unstructured , not attractive build and also a lot of missing content . I can understand that the information and especially the navigation of the community should be in an intuitive way . So one surprising outcome was also the participation , because normally the people are just sitting in a meeting and listen . But at this session everyone was very open minded or rather getting it more time by time . With every thought of them I got the feeling that the real change process is getting simpler , because of the widen knowledge . Design Thinking makes the whole part of communication and interaction for a theme and within a team so great and easy , that ’s what I have learned now . Approach I think mind mapping can be applied in a lot of situation and cases . The most important thing for me ( and the team ) was to getting this big overview which this tool definitely provides . I think in this case I could not apply so much other tools , perhaps the tool visualization , because when people are visualizing they have a better imagination . In general I think the choice of the tool depends on a lot of factors for example how many persons are affected or are available . Because I think mind mapping would not be effective in a room with 100 people , but in smaller groups it works very well . In this case design thinking really helps me to understand the seller ’s problem and the next time I would use mind mapping again but also perhaps mix it with elements of another tool .