Reflection on Mind Mapping 

 Challenge   As a Business Consultant in the IT industry it is my constant challenge to engage with clients in the   most productive and expedient way possible . Also , there is no ‘ typical ’ challenge as customers , their   stories , industries , and topics often change . But I would say it is quite common that clients think they   know what they want and jump into conclusion although , they actually do not know what they really   need . It is just their first , or most obvious , guess . Often this is realized to late in the engagement   when time and money has already been wasted . So , the challenge is how to overcome this and   figure out what really matters to the client beforehand . 

 Selection   A key takeaway for me from this course is that Design Thinking puts emphasis on the ‘ What is ? ’ . And   this is exactly what I often see as being neglected in business . In the lesson on the Mind Mapping   tool from week three , Angelica Martinez showed what Mind Mapping is all about . And I learned that it ’s   a great tool take all the information available and collaboratively shape an understanding of the   current reality and , as a team , deep dive into what the essence of the problem is . I believe that Mind   Mapping could help in specifying the current state at the beginning of an engagement and would   therefore solve my challenge . 

 Application   In the consulting business workshops are commonly used and sometimes you stick to methods that   you have applied before and that have proven successful . But none of these tools I have come across   and applied provides such a good methodology for narrowing down a current situation and even   already think about potential solutions by design criteria . The tools I have used so far , such as   brainstorming , create a pool of insights , but the evaluation and interpretation of the results was up   to an individual or two who organized the workshop . In this way I believe it ’s impossible to find   clusters and dependencies as good as you can when doing it collaboratively . 

 As often , preparation is key . So before conducting workshops I made sure to thoroughly collect the   information , make sure that its well readable and understandable . Also , the workshop location   matters , and it might even be worth it to book an event room depending on how many participants   there are to have enough space . It is a good experience for participants to first take a tour and have   a look at the information provided . In this way they can dive into the situation for themselves before   collaborating in their teams . So , make sure to account for enough time for that . 

 Insight   The difficulty I would say is that you as a consultant in a way disagree with the client or show that   you do not really believe in what the client tells you his problems are . As you want to focus on the   current situation again . But when the client stands behind the idea of again defining the problem in   a collaborative manner it works out great . Overall the Design Thinking process provides good   guidance on which steps to take and where to put emphasis on . I think it is much more expedient to   first really drill down on the problem , opposed to just jumping to possible solutions and maybe rate   them and move on based on that , which is often done . 

 Approach   It is crucial and not trivial to positively formulate and make the client understand that problem   definition is essential and that it might be better to again do it properly . Also , it depends on the   problem statement the client approaches you beforehand . Some want to be guided through the   whole process anyway , some might only want consultants to be involved in one step of their own   process . 

 Going forward I will definitively more often apply Mind Mapping as it is a great tool to create a   common understanding of the situation first and I believe better solutions will result based on that .   The alternative addition I would recommend is to make sure to really get client buy - in before the   workshop . This can be achieved by showing case studies where the initial problem the client   approached us drastically shifted but at the end delivered more customer value . But it is crucial to   get the customer behind and make him understand your thinking . 


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 on Mind Mapping 

 Challenge   As a Business Consultant in the IT industry it is my constant challenge to engage with clients in the   most productive and expedient way possible . Also , there is no ‘ typical ’ challenge as customers , their   stories , industries , and topics often change . But I would say it is quite common that clients think they   know what they want and jump into conclusion although , they actually do not know what they really   need . It is just their first , or most obvious , guess . Often this is realized to late in the engagement   when time and money has already been wasted . So , the challenge is how to overcome this and   figure out what really matters to the client beforehand . 

 Selection   A key takeaway for me from this course is that Design Thinking puts emphasis on the ‘ What is ? ’ . And   this is exactly what I often see as being neglected in business . In the lesson on the Mind Mapping   tool from week three , Angelica Martinez showed what Mind Mapping is all about . And I learned that it ’s   a great tool take all the information available and collaboratively shape an understanding of the   current reality and , as a team , deep dive into what the essence of the problem is . I believe that Mind   Mapping could help in specifying the current state at the beginning of an engagement and would   therefore solve my challenge . 

 Application   In the consulting business workshops are commonly used and sometimes you stick to methods that   you have applied before and that have proven successful . But none of these tools I have come across   and applied provides such a good methodology for narrowing down a current situation and even   already think about potential solutions by design criteria . The tools I have used so far , such as   brainstorming , create a pool of insights , but the evaluation and interpretation of the results was up   to an individual or two who organized the workshop . In this way I believe it ’s impossible to find   clusters and dependencies as good as you can when doing it collaboratively . 

 As often , preparation is key . So before conducting workshops I made sure to thoroughly collect the   information , make sure that its well readable and understandable . Also , the workshop location   matters , and it might even be worth it to book an event room depending on how many participants   there are to have enough space . It is a good experience for participants to first take a tour and have   a look at the information provided . In this way they can dive into the situation for themselves before   collaborating in their teams . So , make sure to account for enough time for that . 

 Insight   The difficulty I would say is that you as a consultant in a way disagree with the client or show that   you do not really believe in what the client tells you his problems are . As you want to focus on the   current situation again . But when the client stands behind the idea of again defining the problem in   a collaborative manner it works out great . Overall the Design Thinking process provides good   guidance on which steps to take and where to put emphasis on . I think it is much more expedient to   first really drill down on the problem , opposed to just jumping to possible solutions and maybe rate   them and move on based on that , which is often done . 

 Approach   It is crucial and not trivial to positively formulate and make the client understand that problem   definition is essential and that it might be better to again do it properly . Also , it depends on the   problem statement the client approaches you beforehand . Some want to be guided through the   whole process anyway , some might only want consultants to be involved in one step of their own   process . 

 Going forward I will definitively more often apply Mind Mapping as it is a great tool to create a   common understanding of the situation first and I believe better solutions will result based on that .   The alternative addition I would recommend is to make sure to really get client buy - in before the   workshop . This can be achieved by showing case studies where the initial problem the client   approached us drastically shifted but at the end delivered more customer value . But it is crucial to   get the customer behind and make him understand your thinking .
### Output: 