John Estrada

December 6, 2021

Design Thinking Reflection

Mind Mapping

Challenge:  Creating a comprehensive multi-year strategic plan that captures new value- driven company goals and objectives that allow for business growth and  innovation is a difficult task. The level of complexity increases when prioritizing  which objectives offer the most value while minimizing risk; based on stakeholder  input, market data, employee feedback, and past lessons learned.

Selection:  To better understand the individual business components (gaps, past targets, key  performance indicators, etc) and align them with the collective stakeholder input  (data, key lessons etc) I selected mind mapping as my preferred tool.

Application:  Mind mapping was instrumental in my ideation sessions held over several days  with stakeholders across my company. Each session was 2 hrs long (3 sessions  total) with key stakeholders participating in all 3 sessions. The goal of my  ideation exercises was to:   1. Level 0: Start with the organization’s mission, vision, value at the center circle

2. Level 1: Itemize the various departments/business units that are parts of the  organization as a whole

3. Level 2: Create the following groups for each department: 1. Staff 2.  Technology 3. Process

4. Level 3: Create the following categories: 1. Challenges 2. Successes 3.  Future Goals then place stakeholder input, data, insight within each bucket

5. Draw connector lines for all dependencies and/or similarities between  departments

Insight:  Having the ability to visualize the various components of my organization and  showing how each department and their challenges, successes, and goals were  directly connected gave all stakeholders that participated in the exercise much  more clarity on the current-state as well as where they needed to be for the  future-state. The mind map made prioritizing the future roadmap less complicated  since all stakeholders were onboard. We all knew we were on the same bus and  finally had a map with a pin for our destination.

Approach:  I would not change my approach. Humans are visual creatures that identify  patterns naturally, that makes mind mapping an outstanding tool that can both  capture input from lots of stakeholders in real-time and connect all components  of a challenge at a 50k ft view down to a 1k ft view.


John Estrada December 6 , 2021 Design Thinking Reflection Mind Mapping Challenge : Creating a comprehensive multi - year strategic plan that captures new value- driven company goals and objectives that allow for business growth and innovation is a difficult task . The level of complexity increases when prioritizing which objectives offer the most value while minimizing risk ; based on stakeholder input , market data , employee feedback , and past lessons learned . Selection : To better understand the individual business components ( gaps , past targets , key performance indicators , etc ) and align them with the collective stakeholder input ( data , key lessons etc ) I selected mind mapping as my preferred tool . Application : Mind mapping was instrumental in my ideation sessions held over several days with stakeholders across my company . Each session was 2 hrs long ( 3 sessions total ) with key stakeholders participating in all 3 sessions . The goal of my ideation exercises was to : 1 . Level 0 : Start with the organization ’s mission , vision , value at the center circle 2 . Level 1 : Itemize the various departments / business units that are parts of the organization as a whole 3 . Level 2 : Create the following groups for each department : 1 . Staff 2 . Technology 3 . Process 4 . Level 3 : Create the following categories : 1 . Challenges 2 . Successes 3 . Future Goals then place stakeholder input , data , insight within each bucket 5 . Draw connector lines for all dependencies and/or similarities between departments Insight : Having the ability to visualize the various components of my organization and showing how each department and their challenges , successes , and goals were directly connected gave all stakeholders that participated in the exercise much more clarity on the current - state as well as where they needed to be for the future - state . The mind map made prioritizing the future roadmap less complicated since all stakeholders were onboard . We all knew we were on the same bus and finally had a map with a pin for our destination . Approach : I would not change my approach . Humans are visual creatures that identify patterns naturally , that makes mind mapping an outstanding tool that can both capture input from lots of stakeholders in real - time and connect all components of a challenge at a 50k ft view down to a 1k ft view .