Software product design is a complicated process. Fully 70% of product design decisions are non-technical. The ability to visualize the complexity of a problem domain using mind maps unlocks our spatial intelligence (Wikipedia link), revealing relationships and insights that allow us to effectively drive towards solutions.

During a recent software discovery engagement for a Salesforce AppExchange product, we helped a team identify minimum viable product (MVP) features through a comparison with existing CRM platform features. This helped the team to focus on their competitive differentiators and align Marketing and Engineering on a common vision.

On another project, the mind map quickly revealed that security was the highest risk aspect of the project that could potentially delay product launch.

I prefer MindManager from MindJet, but most any mind mapping tool can be used.

Some core principles of effective mind mapping:

  • Baseline Knowledge Template
  • Iteration
  • Information Density

Baseline Knowledge Template

Mind map templates capture existing knowledge and provide a framework of topics to explore during discovery.

Templates aligned with industry solutions provide immediate business value and accelerate the discovery process. For example, a template for Financial Services projects may have topics for addressing security and compliance, while a template for Manufacturing will have topics for asset or inventory management.

Periodically review templates in post discovery during retrospectives to keep the map of knowledge up to date.

Iteration

The first pass of discovery involves working through the baseline mind map topics in any particular order, creating new leaf-node “branches” that answer pre-existing questions.

Non-applicable template branches are easily pruned from the template. New topics are created and expanded upon.

Each topic within the mind map is revisited at least 2–3 times throughout the discovery process. I typically screen share the mind map with clients during these exercises and make updates in real-time.

Information Density

An effective mind map provides a comprehensive story in a single viewing. The more density of information, the better.

Colors, flags, icons, arrows, and emoticons all contribute to the density of information. A legend helps readers to interpret the information.

Final Tips

With enough practice, practically any decision or challenge can be tackled with a mind map. Some tips:

  • Learn keyboard shortcuts. Adding new topics at the speed of thought is an exceptionally powerful tool.
  • Use a mind map tool with forced directed nodes that will automatically adjust and create an aesthetically pleasing layout. Having to manually rearrange topics as the map grows becomes a deterrent to using the tool.
  • Collaborate with others using cloud hosted file sharing.