Many companies today incorporate behavioral questions into job interviews, to get a sense of your problem solving abilities. One way to prepare for these tough questions is to do what’s called "STAR" planning. STAR stands for: Situation: give an example of a situation you were involved in that resulted in a positive outcome Task: describe [...]

Visual Mind 9, which I told you about in February, has apparently emerged from beta testing and is now available as a shipping product. The home page of the Mind Technologies website now offers a 30-day trial download of version 9, and all of the site’s marketing copy refers to this as the current version. [...]

Mango Software, a developer in China, recently released XMIND, a Java-based mind mapping software program for Windows and Mac OS X. I recently downloaded and installed it, and I must say it appears to be quite solid for a new program. The interface is nicely laid out, incorporating a lot of functionality into tabbed dialog [...]

JKRB Software, the developer of Pocket Mindmap for the Windows Mobile PC platform, recently announced on its website that it will soon be releasing a Japanese version of the program. It will enable users to work with mind maps that incorporate the Japanese character set. Cool! If you’re not familiar with Pocket Mindmap, please click [...]

Earlier this week, CS Odessa launched ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5, the newest version of its mind mapping software. Version 5 has an improved new look and feel, and increased integration with MS Office and MS Project management software. To read the official news release, please click here. To read my analysis of the program’s new and [...]

If you have an effective process for preparing for a major business meeting, the meeting itself is more likely to be successful. Preparing for a successful meeting is a special type of project: It requires you to set objectives, to solicit the participation of co-workers, partners and people outside of your organization, to manage a [...]

According to the surveys of users of mind mapping software that I have conducted, one of the biggest needs that many of you have is to see examples of successful software-produced mind maps, and to understand what makes them work. In other words, many of you are looking for case histories that illustrate some of [...]

In November, I told you about theRealizer, a MindManager add-in that transforms this leading mind mapping software program into a powerful brainstorming and problem solving application. Recently, the developer (Realize AB) announced that it has added an expansion pack to theRealizer. It includes: An expanded selection of pre-defined challenges (general, product development, marketing, sales, organizational [...]

The developers at CS Odessa were kind enough to give me a preview of the newest version of their mind mapping software program to play with. ConceptDraw MINDMAP 5 for Windows will be officially launched on April 10th, with the Mac OS X version to follow in early May. According to Alexander Tyagulsky, the marketing [...]