1. Why this, why now
We saw over the last years an explosion in mapping tools. Especially unlimited canvas tools like Miro and Mural got rolled out in a lot of companies. But also Apple and Microsoft have free tools available.
Of course writing on whiteboards, walls full of sticky notes and even interactive screens are not new in our professional lives. The same with methods. User Story Maps, Customer Journeys, Information Flows are know methods.
But still I see way to many meetings and discussions where these tools are not leveraged and groups tend to get stuck in endless discussions. We see presentations with a few bullet points trying to explain complex systems and listening to people explaining complex interactions without any way to keep the complexity in our mind all at once.
I deeply believe we need to use more artifacts to capture our mental model and to align these models within a group.
2. Why I write this
Coming from a design background, with years in product roles, I always used mapping techniques and always found as soon as people based their discussion around a visual artifact, people start to align on the details and discussions went way deeper. A group can talk about the whole ‘it‘ instead of jumping from one detail to the next, without an overview.
I’m exploring this space whenever I can. I use visual maps whenever it helps me (and think I still should use it more) And I also want to get even deeper into which maps are working, why they are working and how to facilitate mapping as tool used in professional everyday occasions for product people.
Because I’m confident, we are wasting too much time at talking about important topics without capturing and revisiting them.
So basically this is the very rough model I have in my head.
3. How this will work
I’m trying to post a small thought from Mon–Fri. Some times with a visual, some times without one. Maybe some days it is just a visual. I don’t know yet. This is an experiment.
It will be mostly related to creating digital products, because this is my field of work. But I might lean into other topics if they feel right.