Mind Mapping in a website relaunch   project 

 Challenge   As internal IT supplier of an education holding with several affiliated ( higher ) education companies   ( particularly private universities and vocational schools ) , I recently got involved with the relaunch of   the website for one of our largest subsidiaries . The existing website was developed within only two   months by a team leaving the organization within days after the launch six months ago . Once online ,   the website turned out not to have undergone proper testing , lacked important content , had a   horrible translation and was built on a very poor technical infrastructure . The website also   particularly lacked a clear customer focus and efficient conversion paths . Instead , it reflected a   complicated internal organizational structure with multiple sub - brands , external sub - sites and no   clear communication channels . As a result , the website became a disaster in terms of ranking /   visibility , user experience , content quality and – above all – conversion . 

 A relaunch seemed the only way to fix all this and the board asked a new group of marketing   employees from the different sub - brands to develop a concept for a website relaunch which should   be completed within three months . The board asked me to support this project with my technical   expertise ( and my marketing experience from earlier positions ) . 

 It quickly became apparent , that the project not only lacked a clear setup and structure but that the   mindset of the people involved would result in a website similar to the last one … with sub - brands   fighting over user attention , no integrated communication approach and a lack of clear and   straightforward conversion paths . My challenge was ( and is ) to avoid this and support the team in   creating a “ better ” website by rethinking their existing marketing approaches . 

 Selection   I decided that the mind mapping tool ( https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking- innovation / lecture / lsFRa / mind - mapping - tool ) might be a good option to visualize common interests   of the units and behaviors of different user groups ( e.g. prospective students , parents , students ,   alumni , teachers , teaching staff , job seekers , etc . ) and thus foster the project groups attention to   developing a joint approach for the website . As we already had substantial data on the user   behaviors and preferences ( e.g. from website analytics , evaluations , interviews and anecdotical   evidence ) , clustering information from these sources and connecting relevant data points seemed a   logical next step . 

 Application   In a first step , I asked all projects team members to prepare the kick - off meeting by collecting and   reviewing relevant information like user behavior on the website ( incl . online analytics , adword   campaign results ) , surveys , competition analysis and interviews with key stakeholders . Each member   was also asked to present his / her analysis at the beginning of the meeting and highlighted   important insights . 

 During the presentations , every member was asked to note relevant aspects on post - its and collected   them . We then discussed and identified overarching aspects for the design of successful websites   ( e.g. focus groups , user behavior , devices , interests , aims of the website , etc . ) and wrote them on a 

 white board . Afterwards , each member presented their post - its , we discussed the aspects and   clustered them around the focal points on the white board . 

 Insight & Approach   It soon became apparent that some of the project members had a pretty fixed mindset and strong   organizational focus ( partly because they had been involved in earlier website projects for the group   and had a long affiliation with the sub - brands ) . Although some of the products ( education programs )   were rather similar and thus relevant for identical user groups , these group members tried to   establish a structure that would only bring theirs brands products to the customer ’s attention . 

 Only when I highlighted the strong interest of our board for cross - brand collaboration and a unified   approach did these members open and started applying a “ what if there were no organizational   structures ” approach . Once the Gordian Knot was cut , however , the team started adopting a new   perspective and developed a very promising first concept for the website relaunch . 

 Other than expected from the board , however , key findings from the meeting were that the   development of the new website would require several organizational adjustments and a more   detailed analysis of interfaces and possibilities for joint product initiatives . Also , the group identified   the lack of a coherent brand strategy to be a major hurdle for the development of a new website and   that an imminent rebranding ( Corporate Design ) will make developing the new website within the   expected timespan impossible . 

 Instead , the group developed a project proposal which describes the new communication   approaches , key fields of action , technical , organizational and resource requirements and decisions   for the board which will make the relaunch feasible . 

 This result was , from my perspective , the best we could achieve : Instead of making the same   mistakes again , we will now have the option to develop a coherent website optimized for conversion   and test new and overdue organizational restructures . 

 For the next steps in this project I will consider using visualization techniques within the team ( and   sub - brand organizations ) and the learning launch approach with potential customers and students   via A / B testing and rapid user tests to gain additional information on customer groups , conversion   paths and overall acceptance of the new website compared to the current version . 


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: Mind Mapping in a website relaunch   project 

 Challenge   As internal IT supplier of an education holding with several affiliated ( higher ) education companies   ( particularly private universities and vocational schools ) , I recently got involved with the relaunch of   the website for one of our largest subsidiaries . The existing website was developed within only two   months by a team leaving the organization within days after the launch six months ago . Once online ,   the website turned out not to have undergone proper testing , lacked important content , had a   horrible translation and was built on a very poor technical infrastructure . The website also   particularly lacked a clear customer focus and efficient conversion paths . Instead , it reflected a   complicated internal organizational structure with multiple sub - brands , external sub - sites and no   clear communication channels . As a result , the website became a disaster in terms of ranking /   visibility , user experience , content quality and – above all – conversion . 

 A relaunch seemed the only way to fix all this and the board asked a new group of marketing   employees from the different sub - brands to develop a concept for a website relaunch which should   be completed within three months . The board asked me to support this project with my technical   expertise ( and my marketing experience from earlier positions ) . 

 It quickly became apparent , that the project not only lacked a clear setup and structure but that the   mindset of the people involved would result in a website similar to the last one … with sub - brands   fighting over user attention , no integrated communication approach and a lack of clear and   straightforward conversion paths . My challenge was ( and is ) to avoid this and support the team in   creating a “ better ” website by rethinking their existing marketing approaches . 

 Selection   I decided that the mind mapping tool ( https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking- innovation / lecture / lsFRa / mind - mapping - tool ) might be a good option to visualize common interests   of the units and behaviors of different user groups ( e.g. prospective students , parents , students ,   alumni , teachers , teaching staff , job seekers , etc . ) and thus foster the project groups attention to   developing a joint approach for the website . As we already had substantial data on the user   behaviors and preferences ( e.g. from website analytics , evaluations , interviews and anecdotical   evidence ) , clustering information from these sources and connecting relevant data points seemed a   logical next step . 

 Application   In a first step , I asked all projects team members to prepare the kick - off meeting by collecting and   reviewing relevant information like user behavior on the website ( incl . online analytics , adword   campaign results ) , surveys , competition analysis and interviews with key stakeholders . Each member   was also asked to present his / her analysis at the beginning of the meeting and highlighted   important insights . 

 During the presentations , every member was asked to note relevant aspects on post - its and collected   them . We then discussed and identified overarching aspects for the design of successful websites   ( e.g. focus groups , user behavior , devices , interests , aims of the website , etc . ) and wrote them on a 

 white board . Afterwards , each member presented their post - its , we discussed the aspects and   clustered them around the focal points on the white board . 

 Insight & Approach   It soon became apparent that some of the project members had a pretty fixed mindset and strong   organizational focus ( partly because they had been involved in earlier website projects for the group   and had a long affiliation with the sub - brands ) . Although some of the products ( education programs )   were rather similar and thus relevant for identical user groups , these group members tried to   establish a structure that would only bring theirs brands products to the customer ’s attention . 

 Only when I highlighted the strong interest of our board for cross - brand collaboration and a unified   approach did these members open and started applying a “ what if there were no organizational   structures ” approach . Once the Gordian Knot was cut , however , the team started adopting a new   perspective and developed a very promising first concept for the website relaunch . 

 Other than expected from the board , however , key findings from the meeting were that the   development of the new website would require several organizational adjustments and a more   detailed analysis of interfaces and possibilities for joint product initiatives . Also , the group identified   the lack of a coherent brand strategy to be a major hurdle for the development of a new website and   that an imminent rebranding ( Corporate Design ) will make developing the new website within the   expected timespan impossible . 

 Instead , the group developed a project proposal which describes the new communication   approaches , key fields of action , technical , organizational and resource requirements and decisions   for the board which will make the relaunch feasible . 

 This result was , from my perspective , the best we could achieve : Instead of making the same   mistakes again , we will now have the option to develop a coherent website optimized for conversion   and test new and overdue organizational restructures . 

 For the next steps in this project I will consider using visualization techniques within the team ( and   sub - brand organizations ) and the learning launch approach with potential customers and students   via A / B testing and rapid user tests to gain additional information on customer groups , conversion   paths and overall acceptance of the new website compared to the current version .
### Output: 