Ideation & Planning Techniques 1/3 — MindMaps

When it comes to creative process, there are ways that boost creativity and come up with good ideas in much shorter time and with less requirements to the environment.

There is an infinite — yes, I think INFINITE — number of techniques to facilitate ideation. Some of those are for individuals, some for groups. Many involve different tools. Some work for everyone, some are highly individual. However, there is a list of three that are quite helpful in tech businesses and structure your idea flow to deliver best results quickly.

The one technique I personally use quite often is Mind Mapping. What it basically means is taking all ideas out of your mind and organize those into a map. The map looks like the picture of your brain. When one level is done and the whole picture is visual, your brain automatically starts developing those ideas, incrementing ideas to more ideas, assuming relationships between them.

Mind maps can be drawn by color pens on paper, whiteboards, can be developed with stickers on a wall, or even go digital via lots of mind mapping software tools that are there in abundance. The tool I use for most of projects is called XMind and is free to download and what’s more important — SUPER EASY TO USE!

To give you a better idea, I’m sharing a few examples from my recent project work. To be honest, I use mind maps even broader now: for strategic planning, requirements specification, and much more whenever I need to shot the ideas and thoughts flowing in mind into single structured picture. Highly recommended!