Where do I start?A beginner’s guide to Idea Mapping

Official definition: An idea map is essentially a visual representation of your thinking process. It's a simple to use tool for planning and organising thoughts in a way that doesn't rely on traditional note taking. 

It's easy to lose sight of what you're doing when you have an idea, but it helps if we can answer this question first. Why are our users going through all these steps? What do they want to achieve? This will not only keep things organised but allow to you have a clear definition of what you are looking to achieve with your users needs front and center.

What are you creating?  

Start by asking yourself a few questions... 

• Which market are you in?  

• What solution are you trying to fix?  

• Where does your product sit in the market? 

You may not know (and that’s ok), but software can fall into a few broad categories:  

• B2C software, app or platform - creating a software solution for end customers, for example Instagram  

• B2B software, app or platform - creating a software solution for other businesses, for example Quickbooks  

• Robotic process automation (RPA) - creating a software solution for your internal business processes  

• Expanding an existing platform or software set. 

Once you’ve slotted your idea into one of the above then it’s time to look at the value proposition statement.  

A Value Proposition Statement 

I know what you’re thinking- “Sure... the value proposition statement...what on earth is that?”. Well in short, “we help X with Y.” 

X = Your main user group  

Y = The main problem you are helping X solve  

Example:  

B2B software: Accounting platform aimed at small business owners:  

“We help small business owners to file their taxes online.” 

The goal of a value proposition statement is to clearly define your ideas key features. In other words, it should answer the question "What does this do?" It’s not just about identifying problems that you hope someone will solve with your software—we need compelling reasons why people should care enough about what we offer them instead! If you have multiple core users (for example a marketplace where you have both buyers and sellers) feel free to do more than one. 

You’ve now worked out who you’re helping but how do you build a prototype? We’ll go into detail in our next blog of how to build an MVP but if you’re stuck in the meantime we are a click away! Book in here for a quick chat!