Posted on 09.07.11

Seven Tips for Better Mind Mapping Sessions

by Tim Frick

Here are seven ways to get the most from your collaborative brainstorming sessions.

Creative brainstorming, mind mapping, ideation—whatever you want to call the process of generating creative ideas to serve the larger purpose of a project or goal—is a critical part of any good process. At Mightybytes, we are always refining our approach and trying new things when we create new web applications and sites for our clients. Here are some ideas that came from planning a recent session for a client using this technique.

In Managing Interactive Media Projects I wrote about mind mapping as a project kickoff technique, but focused more on creative process as an internal dialogue when one is brainstorming ideas for an interactive project. Here I open the topic up to discuss mind mapping as a group collaboration effort.

A good brainstorming session is a great way to kick off any project. It gives both client and your team the chance to get comfortable with one another and share ideas. In this scenario, our goal was to use the ideas generated in the mind-mapping brainstorm to devise a brand positioning statement for a client who wants help building their business.

Using a white board and markers, we spent several hours brainstorming with our client during the course of several mind-mapping exercises. Here are some pointers to consider, based on our experience:

Do Your Homework

Come prepared to your first creative session. Arm yourself and your team with the data necessary to speak with authority on the project at hand: its strengths, its weaknesses, and where it potentially falls into the competitive landscape.

While you don’t have to go all out at this point, doing a bit of competitive research is critical in properly preparing yourself and your team for defining a client’s unique value proposition or selling point, which is the ultimate goal of this exercise. Find several competitors online through a few targeted Google searches, figure out what they do well, and take notes on obvious (or not so obvious) gaps in their offerings which might drive discussions around your project or client’s product/service.

Then be prepared to shelve it all. Come to the table only with your newfound competitive landscape knowledge and little else. It will provide you with the context you need to run a successful meeting. The purpose of a mind mapping session is not to dwell on what others are doing but rather what your product needs to do, so focus only on ideas for improving what’s already out there or creating what’s not. A little background information will help you nudge the activity in the right direction. It’s all about context.

Free the Wild Mind

In her excellent books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, author and writing instructor Nathalie Goldberg cautions us to not let our ‘internal editor’—that part of your mind that wants to harness an idea before it has even reached its full potential—take over the writing process. While harnessing creative ideas is a critical part of executing them, it is important to allow creative teams the leeway they need to generate ideas freely.

Make sure you check your analytical thinking at the door. Now is not the time for bulleted lists and detailed outlines nor is it the time for questioning priorities. It is the time for fostering open dialogues and the free exchange of ideas. Be sure to create a meeting culture that supports this so everyone feels comfortable sharing any ideas, no matter how ambitious or off-the-wall.

Three Rooms of Creativity

Scott Belsky talks about the idea of using three distinct rooms for the creative process in his book Making Ideas Happen:

• The first room (which we are discussing here) is where unrestrained sky is the limit brainstorming occurs.
• The second room supports the organized chronology of some ideas from room one.
• The third room is a place where critical reviews of the remaining ideas take place.

You may not have three extra rooms in your office that can be used exclusively for these purposes (we certainly don’t), but the idea is that each space exists separately from the others. Goals are clearly defined for each and this helps drive the execution of creative ideas. If you can’t spare the space, consider finding three different environments in which to explore these three creative goals. Coffee shops, co-working spaces, or your dining room table can all serve suitable purposes here.

Hold the Specs and Jargon, Please

Given that we are talking about a creative session here, it stands to reason the one wouldn’t dwell on technical terminology or jargon of any kind. If you are prone to corpuspeak, check terms like perception mapping, heuristics, decision framework, value matrix, and other similar phrases at the door. While you may be implementing some (or all) of these down the line, your initial session should be focused on adding value through personal interaction.

Don’t let industry verbiage gum up the works, as it may serve to intimidate clients or other team members and make them less apt to share ideas. This applies equally for server specifications, hosting platforms, or any other technical terminology that, while important later on, will only cloud the generation of good ideas at this early stage.

Start with Questions

Good strategic sessions always start with good questions. At Mightybytes we have a creative questionnaire that, while perhaps not appropriate for every project or client need, drives many of our initial project kickoff meetings. It consists of just under twenty questions that relate to the creative communication aspects of a new project. They cover everything from target audience and key product benefits to aesthetic virtues, emotional motivators, and company culture. Answers to each of these questions often generate insights that can help you reach discoveries that matter when creating a positioning statement.

Some sample questions include:

• Who, specifically, is your target audience and what are their key pain points?
• What are your product’s key features or benefits?
• What emotional motivators drive your audience toward a purchase decision?
• What emotional response would you like to be generated from your company or a customer’s use of your product?
• What colors (if any) do you associate with this emotional response?
• What words do you associate with this emotional response? (more on this in a bit)
• How would you describe the culture and personality of your organization?

Yes, and…

There is an improv technique called ‘Yes, and’ that is meant to push actors further into an idea or topic during a performance. Basically, one person throws out an idea or topic, giving the other performer an opportunity to accept it and take the idea in a new direction.

Performer one: “We should go see a movie tonight.”
Performer two: “Yes, and that will give me an opportunity to wear my big new hat.”

When applied to a business setting the same ‘Yes, and’ technique allows diverse groups to build on each other’s ideas rather than tear them down. Try using it during your brainstorming sessions to make connections between two seemingly disparate ideas and to foster a supportive environment for your creative team.

Continue with Keywords

Keywords play such a critical role in so many marketing efforts these days that they should be a significant part of any project kickoff. They are used on websites to drive search engine traffic. They are used in ad campaigns. They are used in mobile apps and on social networks. In some cases, they even dictate the directories of collaborative software environments and help guide an organization’s structure and business processes. For our purposes here, they serve perhaps one of their most important roles: guiding the creation of your brand positioning or value statement.

Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool offers great suggestions that can get you started, but use it only if necessary. Instead focus on generating lists of keywords based on the ideas that come from the questions listed above. This is free-flowing idea generation at its best. Think of it like charades, or better yet a business-driven version of the Hasbro Milton Bradley game Scattergories. They key is to have fun with it and encourage everyone in the meeting to participate.

In a good mind mapping session you’ll be able to draw lines from keyword to keyword, making connections between ideas that wouldn’t necessarily be apparent were you using a spreadsheet, document, or software tool.

After your initial session (once you move into room two of your creative process), you will eventually categorize these terms and cull the best from your large list. If you are targeting search terms you will break them into ‘long tail’ and ‘broad head’ keyword groups, but for now the simple act of generating this list is all you need.

Next Steps: Generating the Brand Positioning Statement

If you have implemented even some the techniques mentioned above you should have whiteboards and notepads chock full of good ideas, great content, ample keyword lists, and lots of squiggly arrows and lines connecting your ideas. Now the hard part begins. It’s time to move on to room two in your creative process and distill all these ideas into those that really matter and are worth developing.

Brand strategy, like the creative process in general, is a highly subjective discipline and what works for me or for Mightybytes may not necessarily work for other firms or strategists. If you have any improvements or suggestions on the above tips I would really love to hear them.