A mind map is a visual hierarchy diagram intended to structure information. It's commonly utilized to identify connections between concepts or ideas. Imagine it as a tree, with the center of your mind map - or the trunk - representing the subject, question, or problem you're attempting to address. Once your trunk is established, your brainstorming session begins. As your team notes down all of their ideas, topics, and subtopics, branches will start to develop on your mind map.
When to use a Mind Map Template
Mind mapping is an excellent way to capture your thoughts and bring them to life in a visual format. It goes beyond just taking notes, as mind maps can enhance creativity, improve memory retention, and facilitate more effective problem-solving for you and your team.
Mind mapping is a versatile exercise that can be utilized for nearly any purpose. Whether you're journaling personally or if your team needs to reevaluate a process, feature or product, it's a valuable tool to have in your brainstorming arsenal.
Professionals from various industries utilize this technique to boost creativity and develop innovative solutions due to its ease of learning. Mind mapping is an ideal tool for creative professionals, product owners, developers, business managers, and educators alike.
How to use the Mind Map Template
FigJam's free template makes mind mapping effortless. You can use it to brainstorm on your own or collaboratively with your team, depending on what works best for your work mode (remote or in-person).
Here's how to utilize the Mind Map Template in FigJam:
-
Choose the Mind Map Template
-
Share the link with your team to schedule a mind mapping session
-
Begin by identifying the central concept
The center of your mind map (or trunk) is the key question or idea that lies at the heart of addressing your topic or resolving your problem. Enter it into the center of the Mind Map Template.
-
Brainstorm
Allocate five minutes for your team to jot down their initial idea when considering the primary concept. You may use images, words, or short phrases. Keep in mind that this is a rapid exercise intended to stimulate free thinking.
-
Expanding your Mind Map
Record concepts as branches extending outward from the center of your mind map. When you're ready to relocate or organize ideas, hold down Ctrl or Cmd and click on the concepts to drag and rearrange the branches.
-
Develop branches
After mapping out your initial set of branches, select a branch and ask: Where else can we take this? What other related concepts or problems are there? Draw an additional branch extending from the first one and add your second idea at the end.
-
Continue this process until you reach a suitable stopping point.
Experiment with changing the color and orientation of your mind map, or introducing elements such as sticky notes, images, or emojis.
Mind Map examples
The process of creating a mind map is relatively simple. All you need is a designated time and space to jot down your ideas and concepts. Mind mapping can be applied to any topic or subject matter.
For example, let's consider exploring a product feature such as video calls. You can begin by placing the feature at the center of your mind map and branching out related topics or concepts like communication, team building, online meetings, among others. As you continue with the exercise, you will soon visualize clusters of topics around video calls that will help you identify which ones are worth exploring further and which ones may not be relevant at the moment.
Asking questions like "What is it?" or "Where is this leading?" along the way can prove helpful in steering your thought process towards expected results.
