Tools and techniques mapping
Understanding how you spend your work time
How to do it
- Get a template or just draw your own (it’s quite straightforward)
- Reflect on what you do in your day, week or month
- Map the techniques, software and tools that you use to axes of importance and frequency of use
- Annotate where you’d like to shift the frequency or importance level
How it came about
After using the timeline mapping exercise I felt that it could help to anchor workshop attendees in their present day. I was also under pressure to cover very low level techniques of practice. People just wanted to get better at Sketch etc.
So, I decided to use a basic framework that I sometimes use in user research to understand the importance of tasks, and frequency of acting out that task.
I decided to use a similar framework with a different subject. Instead I get people to focus on mapping the software, tools or specific techniques they use to importance and frequency of use.
I haven’t ever done any analysis on the data but people tell me that they find it useful. At least as part of the early reflection you need to do before you decide how you develop. I reckon you could learn a lot about all the things you do day-to-day, for example:
- How much time you do things that are not very important and syphon time away from what really matters.
- How much time you spend doing activities that you don’t enjoy.
- How much these activities do tend to define you.
- How invisible some of them are to others.
Want to find out more, follow the series
If you want to learn more about the Shaping Workshops I run, and what I have learned over the years, follow me, or read some other articles in the Medium Publication.
Keep your eyes peeled for another post tomorrow.
