Design Thinking Assignment- Reflection on Mind maps as a design tool 

 Challenge : 

 As an administrative member of a private school , one of the challenges I face is students leaving the institution after   a few years . While most of these are due to relocation to other cities as parents change their careers there are some   moves which are not sufficiently explained . I decided to investigate this further and find ways to reduce this   movement . An initial analysis of the exit interviews was not very insightful . Our main questions were how can we   help our customers further ? What will help retain them and have brand loyalty ? As there was no direct answer to   these questions , we as a team decided to use the design thinking process to understand the problem better and   come up with creative solutions . 

 Selection : 

 I selected the mind mapping tool as this is one of the best ways to gather different perspectives . Since the exit   interviews were not effective in helping us understand the problem areas , mind mapping will further help as explore   the “ what is ” stage . The big idea was to bring all stakeholders points of view- administrators , teachers , students and   parents . And the best way to do that was using the mind mapping technique . Mind mapping allows us to look for   patterns and themes in data . It helps us better understand the minds of our customers . As professor Michelle Anderson   explains in her video , the tool is used to help establish criteria just before the what if stage . We were not yet ready   to look at the solutions , we wanted to better understand the problem itself from various points of view . Hence this   was the perfect tool for our purpose . 

 Application : 

 We initially did secondary research on what made parents change schools , what were some big factors that   compelled them to stay in a particular school etc . through published studies . Next , we conducted interviews of our   existing customers , administrators and teachers as well as people who had left our organization . We personally   interviewed , collected data through surveys , visual charts and diary entries . All the gathered information was posted   on an intranet page where we invited our internal team and stakeholders to have a virtual gallery walk . Once they   had viewed the collected data , they were encouraged to write in their comments using an online mindmap tool (   mindmup ) . The process was very visual though we had to do it online ( as we are under lock down during the   pandemic ) . 

 Once the mind mapping was over , our team stood back to review the outcome and color - coded similar   ideas / responses . We started seeing patterns in what our different groups of stakeholders value the most . We could   identify what fits and does n’t . We were also able look at the outliers objectively , for example one parent felt a more   structured curriculum was important to her , while most others valued the flexibility we offered . And this gave us   some direction in to establishing criteria for the what if stage . This was an excellent exercise as it not only gave us   different points of view , but also helped us see what we needed to keep in mind while creating solutions . 

 Insights : 

 In the past , I have used mind maps in an extremely limited way , the course helped me in using this tool much more   effectively . While Initially I was only using it for simple brainstorming of solutions , after the course I know that the   goal of mind mapping is to look for patterns and themes in your data and establish criteria . 

 The biggest insight for me and my team was how generalizations do not work . Initially when we approached the   problem , we had brainstormed about possible weak areas of our organization and infrastructure was big on our list .   What emerged was that our stakeholders did not put as much emphasis on infrastructure as my team did . In - fact it   was lowest on their list . There were other intangible things that they valued more , like ease of interaction with the   organization , implementation of their suggestions etc .   I am glad we involved a larger group of people and did not   limit it to just a few of us within the organization as this completely changed the way we looked at our problem . I   understand that when doing design thinking it is imperative to not close our minds or fixate on one thing we may   think is the problem . Keeping an open mind and letting a heterogenous group work collaboratively are critical to   understanding the problem accurately . 

 Approach : 

 We are still working on possible solutions , but our approach will include our stakeholders and allowing them to have   a voice so that the solutions we arrive at are more effective . Going forward I will continue to use the mind mapping   tool as it is a great way to capture the ideas of many people and lets us “ see ” the minds of our customers . It is visual ,   engaging and can be used effectively with large groups of stakeholders , even in an online platform . Another   important advantage of using this tool is that all stakeholders feel they are part of creating a solution and are more   involved .   It allows for a heterogenous group to come together and captures outliers which in some cases can be   important when we brainstorm for solutions . 


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: Design Thinking Assignment- Reflection on Mind maps as a design tool 

 Challenge : 

 As an administrative member of a private school , one of the challenges I face is students leaving the institution after   a few years . While most of these are due to relocation to other cities as parents change their careers there are some   moves which are not sufficiently explained . I decided to investigate this further and find ways to reduce this   movement . An initial analysis of the exit interviews was not very insightful . Our main questions were how can we   help our customers further ? What will help retain them and have brand loyalty ? As there was no direct answer to   these questions , we as a team decided to use the design thinking process to understand the problem better and   come up with creative solutions . 

 Selection : 

 I selected the mind mapping tool as this is one of the best ways to gather different perspectives . Since the exit   interviews were not effective in helping us understand the problem areas , mind mapping will further help as explore   the “ what is ” stage . The big idea was to bring all stakeholders points of view- administrators , teachers , students and   parents . And the best way to do that was using the mind mapping technique . Mind mapping allows us to look for   patterns and themes in data . It helps us better understand the minds of our customers . As professor Michelle Anderson   explains in her video , the tool is used to help establish criteria just before the what if stage . We were not yet ready   to look at the solutions , we wanted to better understand the problem itself from various points of view . Hence this   was the perfect tool for our purpose . 

 Application : 

 We initially did secondary research on what made parents change schools , what were some big factors that   compelled them to stay in a particular school etc . through published studies . Next , we conducted interviews of our   existing customers , administrators and teachers as well as people who had left our organization . We personally   interviewed , collected data through surveys , visual charts and diary entries . All the gathered information was posted   on an intranet page where we invited our internal team and stakeholders to have a virtual gallery walk . Once they   had viewed the collected data , they were encouraged to write in their comments using an online mindmap tool (   mindmup ) . The process was very visual though we had to do it online ( as we are under lock down during the   pandemic ) . 

 Once the mind mapping was over , our team stood back to review the outcome and color - coded similar   ideas / responses . We started seeing patterns in what our different groups of stakeholders value the most . We could   identify what fits and does n’t . We were also able look at the outliers objectively , for example one parent felt a more   structured curriculum was important to her , while most others valued the flexibility we offered . And this gave us   some direction in to establishing criteria for the what if stage . This was an excellent exercise as it not only gave us   different points of view , but also helped us see what we needed to keep in mind while creating solutions . 

 Insights : 

 In the past , I have used mind maps in an extremely limited way , the course helped me in using this tool much more   effectively . While Initially I was only using it for simple brainstorming of solutions , after the course I know that the   goal of mind mapping is to look for patterns and themes in your data and establish criteria . 

 The biggest insight for me and my team was how generalizations do not work . Initially when we approached the   problem , we had brainstormed about possible weak areas of our organization and infrastructure was big on our list .   What emerged was that our stakeholders did not put as much emphasis on infrastructure as my team did . In - fact it   was lowest on their list . There were other intangible things that they valued more , like ease of interaction with the   organization , implementation of their suggestions etc .   I am glad we involved a larger group of people and did not   limit it to just a few of us within the organization as this completely changed the way we looked at our problem . I   understand that when doing design thinking it is imperative to not close our minds or fixate on one thing we may   think is the problem . Keeping an open mind and letting a heterogenous group work collaboratively are critical to   understanding the problem accurately . 

 Approach : 

 We are still working on possible solutions , but our approach will include our stakeholders and allowing them to have   a voice so that the solutions we arrive at are more effective . Going forward I will continue to use the mind mapping   tool as it is a great way to capture the ideas of many people and lets us “ see ” the minds of our customers . It is visual ,   engaging and can be used effectively with large groups of stakeholders , even in an online platform . Another   important advantage of using this tool is that all stakeholders feel they are part of creating a solution and are more   involved .   It allows for a heterogenous group to come together and captures outliers which in some cases can be   important when we brainstorm for solutions .
### Output: 