MIND MAPPING

Challenge: I am currently building an expense tracker application. I am collecting  data for the most common expenditures of people. Apart from the obvious areas that  I personally spend on and have seen people near me spend on I would like to take in  a broader perspective. I want this data to represent the minds of my customers and  give clear picture for my product direction.

Selection: The tool I have selected is mind mapping. It is a creative solution to  identify patterns that are visual and engaging so my insights would be more clear  and communicative to my challenge. I can see my outliers too and take that in  considerations for extensive categorizing. Spending money on small things is a quick  impulse than a meditative step. So an intuitive reaction would provide better results,  this is where mind mapping comes in play.

Application: I visited the mall and asked few people to participate in my research.  They were asked to go round the mall and shop with a fixed amount, (say 1000  rupees). They came back and pinned the receipts on a board. People that shopped  for similar items pinned and labelled that area. I carried this activity for 8 more days  in various other malls to build more pattern on the same board. I think I have  included the essence of mind mapping for this data collection of a large crowd.

Insight: The insight I obtained from mind mapping was that people tend to buy more  clothes as they were on sale, the home décor was the second to the groceries bought.  This tool made me accept so many categories that was considered trivial to me. The  customer wants were more wide spread than originally thought. Unless we interact  with the customer and understand the ethnography, the solution will be incomplete.

Approach: I have used the tool effectively but to increase the scope of the  observation I would include more people. Also, I would not just constrict the  location to malls. Another tool I would be using in future is learning launch for  confirming my analysis and testing my product for successful market  implementation.


MIND MAPPING Challenge : I am currently building an expense tracker application . I am collecting data for the most common expenditures of people . Apart from the obvious areas that I personally spend on and have seen people near me spend on I would like to take in a broader perspective . I want this data to represent the minds of my customers and give clear picture for my product direction . Selection : The tool I have selected is mind mapping . It is a creative solution to identify patterns that are visual and engaging so my insights would be more clear and communicative to my challenge . I can see my outliers too and take that in considerations for extensive categorizing . Spending money on small things is a quick impulse than a meditative step . So an intuitive reaction would provide better results , this is where mind mapping comes in play . Application : I visited the mall and asked few people to participate in my research . They were asked to go round the mall and shop with a fixed amount , ( say 1000 rupees ) . They came back and pinned the receipts on a board . People that shopped for similar items pinned and labelled that area . I carried this activity for 8 more days in various other malls to build more pattern on the same board . I think I have included the essence of mind mapping for this data collection of a large crowd . Insight : The insight I obtained from mind mapping was that people tend to buy more clothes as they were on sale , the home décor was the second to the groceries bought . This tool made me accept so many categories that was considered trivial to me . The customer wants were more wide spread than originally thought . Unless we interact with the customer and understand the ethnography , the solution will be incomplete . Approach : I have used the tool effectively but to increase the scope of the observation I would include more people . Also , I would not just constrict the location to malls . Another tool I would be using in future is learning launch for confirming my analysis and testing my product for successful market implementation .