For some reason it took me a few years to finally understand the beauty and power of mindmapping. Thanks to a post by Chris Brogan on how he uses mindmapping, as well as examples from a few of my friends (thank you Guy and Marc), I am now using this tool for everything from the content strategy for thenonmarketer.com to plans to take over the world. But that’s not all mindmapping is good for.
One fantastic use is to help customers flesh out ideas that can later become user stories. Let’s see an example. I’ll use a contrived example of a social network. The mindmapping tool I’m using is MindJet MindManager 8 for Mac.
We start with the project as our central idea. From there, we branch out with each type of user that will be using our app. We then add to each user what they need to be able to do. What’s even more fun is that we can start to show value by forming relationships between branches. For instance, in our example, we see that a site visitor can create an account, and that’s linked to Member. Therefore, we know that the reason a site visitor is creating an account is to become a member, and then be able to do everything a member can do. This can then easily be turned into the user story:
As a Site Visitor, I can create an account, so that I can become a Member.
We are keeping to our format, and we know who is doing what, and what value he will get by doing so. Happy days.
Do you mindmap?
Do you use mindmapping on projects, agile or otherwise? What are the best uses you’ve found for it?
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