Unlike words, images have an immediacy about them: visual information is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. – Tony Buzan – Father of Mind Maps
Mind Map can be used for any activity from a personal calendar to build complex product workflows. I am a fan of Mind Maps since it is very simple and saves time. In this blog, I am going to share about how Mind Maps Help in Product Management from my experience.
What Is A Mind Map?
Mind Map is nothing but a pictorial representation of our thinking in a free flow diagram which can be drawn in an A4 sheet paper. Tony Buzan defined the below 3 essential characteristics of a good mind map.
- A Central Image – Captures the main topic.
- Thick branches radiating out from Central image.
- A Single Key image – or word placed in each branch
Where Can We Use Mind Map In Product Management?
We can use the Mind Map in a variety of activities in product management. I have used in the below key areas:
- Preparing Product Roadmap
- Writing User Stories
Preparing Product Roadmap
A product roadmap is a key tool for building strategy and keeps people aware of updates throughout the product life cycle. It is a continuous process. It helps PM to decide what should be the focus and what should be ignored? Preparing product roadmap is not a one time task. We should revisit and iterate it frequently in the product’s early years. The strategy initiatives road map example is shown below:
Writing User Stories
When a mind map becomes complex and large we can start preparing mini mind maps. The preparation of this kind of small workflows will help you to do the brainstorming with the team and refine it further before jumping into the actual design/development work.
User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system. They typically follow a simple template:
As a < type of user >, I want < some goal > so that < some reason >.
Here, we are going to see a small user story to introduce a new feature for the existing product. When I write a user story for this requirement in the text will look like below:
As a privileged user, I should be able to assign resources to my project details.
The representation of a simple User Story in Mind Map
I hope this article makes you to know how mind maps help in product management with these examples.
References:
Mind Map Mastery – By Tony Buzan
https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-roadmap