Mohamad Afiq            29 December 2020

MIND MAPPING

1. CHALLENGE

I was asked to co-facilitate a design thinking workshop within the Digital &  Technology Sector of our organisation a few months ago, during the second wave of  the pandemic in my country. Our organisation recommended all staff to work  remotely, thus our workshop had to adapt to a virtual environment which was new  to not only the facilitators but participants. The intention of the design thinking  workshop was to solicit user stories from all project managers and business analysts  in the sector on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in all  areas of the organization. Our Chief Information Officer suggested that a horizontal  approach would allow efficiency gains in the in-house development or procurement  of a solution that caters for the organisation’s needs. Our team of two facilitators  alongside the lead project team managers regrouped virtually to decide on the best  approach to conduct the virtual design thinking workshop and discussed various  tools, methods and platform to collaboratively gather user stories for a group of 30  participants.

2. SELECTION

After much discussion on the agenda and main objectives of the design thinking  workshop, our team of facilitators felt comfortable with selecting the mind map  method as the method to gather user stories. According to Wikipedia, a mind map is  a  diagram used to visually organize information. It is hierarchical and shows  relationships among pieces of the whole, created around a single concept, drawn as an  image in the center of a blank page. Major ideas are connected directly to the central  concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas.

Having participated in a global design thinking workshop, I proposed Miro as the mind  map platform as it catered to multi-user collaboration in conjunction with Microsoft  Teams as the meeting platform.

3. APPLICATION

I volunteered to design the mind map to fit to the objective of collecting user stories  from participants. Centrally, I overlaid the mind map with an image of a neutral network  representing the human brain symbolic to artificial intelligence. At the top of the canvas,  I placed visuals to remind participants what user stories are, which are personas that we  want to gather with use cases for each department across the organization.

Each branch connected to the central concept referenced a sector in our organisation  and its branches referenced specific types of staff in those sectors. For example, within

the administration department, there were three sub-branches representing a staff filing  for claims, the claims processing officer, and the finance officer disbursing the funds. We  then got each participant to pen down how artificial intelligence and machine learning  could improve each user story, essentially a wishlist. A staff would want their claims to  be automated through a mobile app by taking snapshots of the parking receipts, a claims  processing officer would want the web app to assist with approving whitelisted claims  and only highlighting exception cases, and the finance officer would want to only  perform an audit only on accounts that breached authorised limits.

4. INSIGHT

Mind map was applied effectively in the 1 hour workshop whereby participants were  split according to their assigned portfolios and collaborated to mind map each user  story. At the end of the workshop, us facilitators recapped and debriefed each user story  to all participants.

Feedback given to us facilitators was positive whereby participants did not feel fatigued  as they could take their time to pen down ideas. This workshop managed to gather close  to 70 unique user stories and these were all big ideas that had not been filtered to see  ‘What Works’ because our CIO wanted us to think big! Because participants were asked  to empathize with the personas rather than themselves, as a staff in the IT sector, user  experiences were captured well in the mind map. Miro’s interactivity of the canvas  whereby we could all see every participants cursor on the browser helped with keeping  energy levels high as it was a fun and de-stressing activity for all.

5. APPROACH

Next time, I would spend more effort in designing the layout of the mind map that allows  for greater intuition from a participants perspective on what is required from them. For  instance, I would display an example user story that has been mind-mapped at the start  of the exercise. Additionally, I would recommend all participants to have their videos  turned on to keep to the collaborative spirit in a virtual design thinking process even if it  means using a secondary mobile device as the video camera. I would also have a debrief  among facilitators to get their views on the effectiveness of the mind map tool in meeting  the objective of gathering user stories because Miro had difficulties exporting data into  CSV from mind maps.


Mohamad Afiq 29 December 2020 MIND MAPPING 1 . CHALLENGE I was asked to co - facilitate a design thinking workshop within the Digital & Technology Sector of our organisation a few months ago , during the second wave of the pandemic in my country . Our organisation recommended all staff to work remotely , thus our workshop had to adapt to a virtual environment which was new to not only the facilitators but participants . The intention of the design thinking workshop was to solicit user stories from all project managers and business analysts in the sector on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in all areas of the organization . Our Chief Information Officer suggested that a horizontal approach would allow efficiency gains in the in - house development or procurement of a solution that caters for the organisation ’s needs . Our team of two facilitators alongside the lead project team managers regrouped virtually to decide on the best approach to conduct the virtual design thinking workshop and discussed various tools , methods and platform to collaboratively gather user stories for a group of 30 participants . 2 . SELECTION After much discussion on the agenda and main objectives of the design thinking workshop , our team of facilitators felt comfortable with selecting the mind map method as the method to gather user stories . According to Wikipedia , a mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information . It is hierarchical and shows relationships among pieces of the whole , created around a single concept , drawn as an image in the center of a blank page . Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept , and other ideas branch out from those major ideas . Having participated in a global design thinking workshop , I proposed Miro as the mind map platform as it catered to multi - user collaboration in conjunction with Microsoft Teams as the meeting platform . 3 . APPLICATION I volunteered to design the mind map to fit to the objective of collecting user stories from participants . Centrally , I overlaid the mind map with an image of a neutral network representing the human brain symbolic to artificial intelligence . At the top of the canvas , I placed visuals to remind participants what user stories are , which are personas that we want to gather with use cases for each department across the organization . Each branch connected to the central concept referenced a sector in our organisation and its branches referenced specific types of staff in those sectors . For example , within the administration department , there were three sub - branches representing a staff filing for claims , the claims processing officer , and the finance officer disbursing the funds . We then got each participant to pen down how artificial intelligence and machine learning could improve each user story , essentially a wishlist . A staff would want their claims to be automated through a mobile app by taking snapshots of the parking receipts , a claims processing officer would want the web app to assist with approving whitelisted claims and only highlighting exception cases , and the finance officer would want to only perform an audit only on accounts that breached authorised limits . 4 . INSIGHT Mind map was applied effectively in the 1 hour workshop whereby participants were split according to their assigned portfolios and collaborated to mind map each user story . At the end of the workshop , us facilitators recapped and debriefed each user story to all participants . Feedback given to us facilitators was positive whereby participants did not feel fatigued as they could take their time to pen down ideas . This workshop managed to gather close to 70 unique user stories and these were all big ideas that had not been filtered to see ‘ What Works ’ because our CIO wanted us to think big ! Because participants were asked to empathize with the personas rather than themselves , as a staff in the IT sector , user experiences were captured well in the mind map . Miro ’s interactivity of the canvas whereby we could all see every participants cursor on the browser helped with keeping energy levels high as it was a fun and de - stressing activity for all . 5 . APPROACH Next time , I would spend more effort in designing the layout of the mind map that allows for greater intuition from a participants perspective on what is required from them . For instance , I would display an example user story that has been mind - mapped at the start of the exercise . Additionally , I would recommend all participants to have their videos turned on to keep to the collaborative spirit in a virtual design thinking process even if it means using a secondary mobile device as the video camera . I would also have a debrief among facilitators to get their views on the effectiveness of the mind map tool in meeting the objective of gathering user stories because Miro had difficulties exporting data into CSV from mind maps .