Before setting up a project, it is often useful to take the time to build a detailed mind map (or mind map). It’s really easy with the online collaboration tools.
A mind map is a graphical representation allowing to identify all the ideas and solutions to be put in place to carry out a project. It is presented in the form of a tree structure with several ramifications.
The mind map to stimulate creativity
First of all, creating a mind map has a role in stimulating creativity.
For example, when setting up a project, the mental map is first used to identify all the problems to be solved in order to achieve an objective. The answers to these problems are translated into actions and tasks to be implemented.
Put away your ideas
The mind map has the advantage of synthesizing all the data to highlight the connections between the different ideas. Quickly you arrive at a clear mapping of all the issues to be addressed. If you work in a team, it is an essential tool to set up a collaborative work.
How to write your mind map?
To carry out these first steps we advise you to use an A3 sheet and a pencil to make changes as you go along. If you prefer digital tools, you can use the Coggle tool to draw this mind map.
It’s quite simple, place the central theme of your problem in the middle of your sheet. Then create branches for each main idea. These branches (maximum 7-8) represent the major issues or themes. They are then broken down into sub-branches (2-8), these sub-branches represent the sub-problems or tasks to be carried out. For each new idea, you have to create a new branch or sub-branch. You quickly get to a first tree structureque veux je proposer
Let’s take the example of the creation of a restaurant. What are the main problems to solve? The concept map could first identify these main problems or questions
- in which neighborhood do I want to settle?
- what are the rental opportunities?
- which menu do I want to offer?
- for how many people?
- what is the competition?
- who is my target?
- which team do I set up?
- how do I finance my project?
- how will I make myself known?
- how much time do I need to complete my project?
Once this first outline has been drawn up, it is essential to group together all the actions belonging to the same theme and, if possible, prioritize them in order of either importance or completion.
The mind map makes it possible to see which actions are interdependent or which are derived from another and thus to group these actions by theme. To take our example again, the key themes could be the following:
- the business plan
- the marketing study
- the financing plan
- organizational strategy
- communication
Structure your project management plan with Wekowork
Once these actions have been grouped by theme, you need to structure your action plan. To do this, we advise you to use our project management application Wekowork. With Wekowork you can break down your project into themes and prioritize your actions and tasks. To do this, simply register and create a project online.
All that remains to be done is to identify who is in charge of which action as well as the start and end dates of each one.