Map 1
What ideas
can we adapt?
  Customer challenge
    Pain point 1
    Pain point 2
    Pain point 3
  Who else has solved this problem?
    Product category
    Industry
    Profession
    Researchers
  "Hunting grounds" for potential solutions
    Trade magazines
    Universities
    Industry associations
    Professional associations
    Blogs
    Influencers
    Subject matter experts
  Similar solutions discovered
    Solution 1
      Summary
      Pros
      Cons
    Solution 2
      Summary
      Pros
      Cons
    Solution 3
      Summary
      Pros
      Cons
  Potential competitors
    Company A
    Company B
    Company C
  Patent search
    Include links to citations
  How will we differentiate our solution?
    NOTE: This should tie in with customer pain points and needs
    What unmet needs can we capitalize upon?
  INSTRUCTIONS
One of the common misperceptions of creativity is that you always need to brainstorm new ideas. That's not always the case. There are actually very few totally new to the world ideas out there. Most successful ideas are built upon existing ones that have been adapted from other industries, markets or contexts.
A good preliminary first step, along with developing an accurate problem definition, is to do some research to determine how others have solved similar challenges. I'm not advocating plagiarism. Far from it. the goal is to find successful solutions that have worked well in other places that you can ADAPT to your needs. A mind map can help you with this process , by giving you a place to summarize your creative challenge , identify hunting grounds where you're likely to find applicable ideas and to record any promising solutions you discover. As you can see from the mind map, it also gives you branches where you can summarize each potential solution and outline its pros and cons.
On the left side of the mind map, you can capture other relevant information, such as potential competitors, the results of any patent search you conduct, with links to the original citations, and notes and ideas on how you will differentiate your solution. In other words, how you will adapt the best idea you discovered during your research.
This is just an example. You can organize your research mind map in the way that makes the most sense to you. The point in sharing this type of mind map with you is to emphasize that mind mapping can be used for a wide variety of creative tasks, not just brainstorming ideas.
Happy idea hunting!
Chuck Frey
Visual Velocity
(formerly the Mind Mapping Software Blog)
mindmappingsoftwareblog.com
chuck@chuckfrey.com