Reflection – Mind Mapping 

 Challenge 

 I am currently managing an infrastructure IT program for a large Pharmaceutical company based out of   Chicago where I am responsible for driving automation throughout the engagement ( End user   computing , Backup & Storage and Network management ) . We started our automation journey last year   however after a few months we started seeing many concerns and issues being raised from different   stakeholders . To understand these issues better and find out the underlying problems we planned a day   long automation workshop inviting 20 key stakeholders / SMEs from customer organization and our   senior management and solution team . The objective of the workshop was to uncover the real issues   which is hindering overall automation progress so that a right action plan can be formulated and to be   executed to bring the program on track . 

 Selection 

 We decided to leverage Mind Mapping in the workshop to engage all the stakeholders and uncover the   real issues . Mind Mapping is an important Design thinking tool which is used to represent how ideas or   other items are linked to a central idea and to each other . Mind maps are used to generate , visualize ,   structure and classify ideas to look for patterns and insights that provide key design criteria . We do this   by displaying the data and asking people to cluster them in ways that allow themes and patterns to   emerge . As we felt , to succeed , mind mapping has to be a team sport and engaging . 

 Application 

 We started the workshop with introduction and setting the agenda / objectives . After that , what we did   was we displayed the automation journey we had so far in a white board highlighting all key milestones   and current status , automation architecture , technology stack , all the key modules / features that are in   development and the key benefits to be realized . After the details were displayed , we asked each of the   stakeholders to go through the details and highlight the key issues / show stoppers that they think need   to be addressed to make the automation journey successful . Each person was allowed to come up with   as many issues as he / she thinks need to be highlighted . We have handed each person with a set of sticky   notes and pen and asked them to stick their notes into the white board once done . We gave roughly 30   mins for this exercise . Once all the sticky notes were there in the board , we as a team went through all   of them one by one and clustered them into 4 main themes ( Technology Issues , Security Issues ,   Execution Issues and Stakeholder / Communication Issues ) . Once we have all the sticky notes clustered in   4 general themes , we divided customer and solution teams both into four groups and asked them to   discuss on those issues to come up with as much as insights possible as that will feed into the action   plan which will be formulated post the workshop . 

 Insights and Approach 

 What I have learned from conducting this exercise with diverse stakeholders is that while the mind   mapping with sticky notes / clustering that captures an exhaustive feedback , the more valuable aspect of   the activity was the shared insights and shared learning that occurs within the teams . The graphic of   automation journey at first place gave the diverse group of stakeholders a focal point for discussion that   allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root causes of their   problems . Also , this exercise helped us to uncover and gain insights that some of the automation issues   were not at all related to the product / solution which we are offering – those were issues due to   communications gaps and lack of adequate documentation provided . Moving forward , our team will   review these insights and will come up with action plans to ensure automation becomes a big success   story for the client . 

 Approach given that our team has already gone through several design thinking activities / tools and are   at this stage in the timeline , the Mind Mapping was the appropriate tool . As previously mentioned , our   team needs to review the insight gained from the automation workshop and incorporate this insight   into an action plan to continue with a successful journey and on time rollout . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Mind Mapping 

 Challenge 

 I am currently managing an infrastructure IT program for a large Pharmaceutical company based out of   Chicago where I am responsible for driving automation throughout the engagement ( End user   computing , Backup & Storage and Network management ) . We started our automation journey last year   however after a few months we started seeing many concerns and issues being raised from different   stakeholders . To understand these issues better and find out the underlying problems we planned a day   long automation workshop inviting 20 key stakeholders / SMEs from customer organization and our   senior management and solution team . The objective of the workshop was to uncover the real issues   which is hindering overall automation progress so that a right action plan can be formulated and to be   executed to bring the program on track . 

 Selection 

 We decided to leverage Mind Mapping in the workshop to engage all the stakeholders and uncover the   real issues . Mind Mapping is an important Design thinking tool which is used to represent how ideas or   other items are linked to a central idea and to each other . Mind maps are used to generate , visualize ,   structure and classify ideas to look for patterns and insights that provide key design criteria . We do this   by displaying the data and asking people to cluster them in ways that allow themes and patterns to   emerge . As we felt , to succeed , mind mapping has to be a team sport and engaging . 

 Application 

 We started the workshop with introduction and setting the agenda / objectives . After that , what we did   was we displayed the automation journey we had so far in a white board highlighting all key milestones   and current status , automation architecture , technology stack , all the key modules / features that are in   development and the key benefits to be realized . After the details were displayed , we asked each of the   stakeholders to go through the details and highlight the key issues / show stoppers that they think need   to be addressed to make the automation journey successful . Each person was allowed to come up with   as many issues as he / she thinks need to be highlighted . We have handed each person with a set of sticky   notes and pen and asked them to stick their notes into the white board once done . We gave roughly 30   mins for this exercise . Once all the sticky notes were there in the board , we as a team went through all   of them one by one and clustered them into 4 main themes ( Technology Issues , Security Issues ,   Execution Issues and Stakeholder / Communication Issues ) . Once we have all the sticky notes clustered in   4 general themes , we divided customer and solution teams both into four groups and asked them to   discuss on those issues to come up with as much as insights possible as that will feed into the action   plan which will be formulated post the workshop . 

 Insights and Approach 

 What I have learned from conducting this exercise with diverse stakeholders is that while the mind   mapping with sticky notes / clustering that captures an exhaustive feedback , the more valuable aspect of   the activity was the shared insights and shared learning that occurs within the teams . The graphic of   automation journey at first place gave the diverse group of stakeholders a focal point for discussion that   allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root causes of their   problems . Also , this exercise helped us to uncover and gain insights that some of the automation issues   were not at all related to the product / solution which we are offering – those were issues due to   communications gaps and lack of adequate documentation provided . Moving forward , our team will   review these insights and will come up with action plans to ensure automation becomes a big success   story for the client . 

 Approach given that our team has already gone through several design thinking activities / tools and are   at this stage in the timeline , the Mind Mapping was the appropriate tool . As previously mentioned , our   team needs to review the insight gained from the automation workshop and incorporate this insight   into an action plan to continue with a successful journey and on time rollout .
### Output: 