Mind Mapping

By C.

Challenge & Selection

One of the ﬁrst tools I implemented was mind mapping, to achieve through a central problem

a compression and expansion of ideas in a multidisciplinary group, in this way to generate,

visualize, structure and classify ideas in order to seek points of view that enrich the key

design criteria.

I use this tool frequently with clients who come from ﬁelds that are not so specialized in

business deﬁnitions and design innovation, because it allows us to co-create together and we

delimit the scope, track key elements and look for the necessary relationships that help us

reach our goal. In short, we capture everything we imagine, and we constantly ask ourselves,

if anything were possible, what attributes do we want for our design? What will make us

diﬀerent from the rest?

Application

With everyone involved in the project we brainstorm the most obvious words of our main

concept, those that come to mind to all of us, we discard all the ﬁrst ideas as we often realize

that even in a group of 5-8 people we manage to agree on many perspectives. So once we

can visualize the obvious, we place our central keyword, our objective, and we start to branch

out everything that has not been thought about the topic, there are no limits, no judgments,

impossibility does not exist. We also try to highlight each ramiﬁcation with some color so as

not to get confused with the topics that are derived from the central one, we use words,

drawings and everything that comes to mind.

We usually do the activity in no more than 15 minutes the ﬁrst part and we put our eﬀorts in

the second part that consists of 30 minutes. Afterwards, we ideally clear our heads a bit to

look at the map we have created and focus on those words that seem attractive to us for the

project and generate concepts from them.

Insight & Approach

What has left me doing this exercise with diﬀerent themes and groups of people, is a folder of

many mental maps but more than that, the valuable thing is to create from perspectives that

we would not imagine, creating new concepts, views and giving a super plus to each idea that

customers have, because if it is true that much of what we imagine sure has already been

created but the important thing is to create very strange things that identify with what we want

to convey and achieve. At the same time, this tool allows us to test the mental limits we have

and know that we do not need to go around supposedly innovating, but to be very serious

about it and oﬀer the market something completely diﬀerent.

And even further, it allows us to know and exploit the approach that each of the collaborators

has to the project, at the end we all leave with the feeling of having contributed much more

than just an idea.


Mind Mapping By C. Challenge & Selection One of the ﬁrst tools I implemented was mind mapping , to achieve through a central problem a compression and expansion of ideas in a multidisciplinary group , in this way to generate , visualize , structure and classify ideas in order to seek points of view that enrich the key design criteria . I use this tool frequently with clients who come from ﬁelds that are not so specialized in business deﬁnitions and design innovation , because it allows us to co - create together and we delimit the scope , track key elements and look for the necessary relationships that help us reach our goal . In short , we capture everything we imagine , and we constantly ask ourselves , if anything were possible , what attributes do we want for our design ? What will make us diﬀerent from the rest ? Application With everyone involved in the project we brainstorm the most obvious words of our main concept , those that come to mind to all of us , we discard all the ﬁrst ideas as we often realize that even in a group of 5 - 8 people we manage to agree on many perspectives . So once we can visualize the obvious , we place our central keyword , our objective , and we start to branch out everything that has not been thought about the topic , there are no limits , no judgments , impossibility does not exist . We also try to highlight each ramiﬁcation with some color so as not to get confused with the topics that are derived from the central one , we use words , drawings and everything that comes to mind . We usually do the activity in no more than 15 minutes the ﬁrst part and we put our eﬀorts in the second part that consists of 30 minutes . Afterwards , we ideally clear our heads a bit to look at the map we have created and focus on those words that seem attractive to us for the project and generate concepts from them . Insight & Approach What has left me doing this exercise with diﬀerent themes and groups of people , is a folder of many mental maps but more than that , the valuable thing is to create from perspectives that we would not imagine , creating new concepts , views and giving a super plus to each idea that customers have , because if it is true that much of what we imagine sure has already been created but the important thing is to create very strange things that identify with what we want to convey and achieve . At the same time , this tool allows us to test the mental limits we have and know that we do not need to go around supposedly innovating , but to be very serious about it and oﬀer the market something completely diﬀerent . And even further , it allows us to know and exploit the approach that each of the collaborators has to the project , at the end we all leave with the feeling of having contributed much more than just an idea .