Thoughts on MindManager for Collaborative Action, Sep 21

Mindjet released Version 6 of its mind mapping software today. Shipping in two editions (Basic and Professional), MindManager 6 enables the creation of visual maps for brainstorming, meeting planning, and information sharing. Others have and will (c'mon Eric!) do a great job of describing the neat things about MindManager, and although I'm not going to do an overall review, I do want to give huge kudos to Mindjet for the on-demand training videos it has included with MindManager. I've mentioned this idea to numerous software vendors, and it is neat to see one doing it so well. Given my professional focus on enhancing team productivity, in this posting I want to focus on how to use MindManager for collaborative action within a team.

Collaborative Capabilities of Today
MindManager is largely a productivity tool for individuals. Mindjet offers two collaboration-oriented features in MindManager:

• Review Mode. MindManager 6 users can send a map to another person by email for review. When the map is in Review Mode, topic and notes added to the map are shown in different colors (depending on the user), can be prefixed with text (eg, "Michael:"), and/or can be visually flagged with an icon. This is similar to the idea behind "Track Changes" in Microsoft Word, enabling a map owner to get input from others and then to quickly see what has changed.


• Free Windows and Browser Viewers. Maps can be shared with anyone, regardless of whether they are a MindManager user or not. A free Windows viewer is available (and has been for some time), as is a recently released browser plug-in for Internet Explorer. Users of these viewers can read the map, but can not make changes to it.

Ideas for Extending the Collaborative Capabilities of MindManager
I think Mindjet has some good opportunities to seriously ramp up the collaborative capabilities of MindManager. (You'll need the MindManager Browser Plug-In to view the map)

Here's my top six:

1. Real-Time Joint Editing and Review. The process of mind mapping benefits from joint input. For people working out of the same office, the ability to share a map in real-time with another person is standard fare with a paper-based map. Both can view it at the same time, and both can add new topics or sub-topics. This interaction dynamic is not replicated with MindManager, and I think it should be. Mindjet used to offer out-of-the-box conferencing capabilities, but de-emphasized these in the last few releases, because (a) it wasn't their core business, and (b) others were providing a more extensible platform for conferencing. I'd like to see Mindjet link MindManager with today's leading Web conferencing platforms, so that through a single button ("Share Map") a user could initiate a joint editing and review session. Given its emphasis on integrating with Microsoft's client and server offerings, Microsoft Live Meeting 2005 would be a natural integration target, but the ideal is for conferencing platform agnosticism.


2. MindManager Server. Teams putting maps onto a file server for joint access suffer from rules around single user access. In other words, multiple people can't open the map at the same time. Mindjet could resolve this by adding a clear distinction between "Edit Mode" and "Read Mode", with visual notification of who has the document in Edit mode at any point in time. Alternatively, it could develop a server-level capability to permit multiple people to have the same map open for editing at the same time, with branch and sub-branch locking via the standard check-in/check-out paradigm. For large teams coordinating action around a single map, such a capability would be a life saver.


3. Presence Integration. Anytime a person is noted on a map, an automatic link to their presence and availability status should be made. For example, when using a map for planning a meeting, the presence and availability status of the attendees should be displayed. This provides a quick way for people working on the map to initiate communication by text or voice with that person. Presence should be displayed at two levels, covering both whether the person is currently online, and if the person is currently looking at the same map (place-based awareness). Ideally, they should have the option of capturing their interaction and saving it as a note on the map. Mindjet could integrate with Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 or integrate more broadly through a technology partnership with IMlogic.


4. SharePoint Auto-Navigation. A map is an ideal candidate for giving a top-level picture of the relationship between a set of information. One could be used to give a visual sense of the relationship between lists and items in a SharePoint site, rather than using the default text-heavy interface. Perhaps Mindjet (or an existing partner) could extend MindManager to automatically generate a summary picture of items in a SharePoint site, for direct visual navigation.


5. Support for NextPage 2.0. I have written previously about the power of the NextPage Version History Map for making it clear as to who has the authoritative version of a document vs. other candidate editions. Since email is accepted as a natural way of sharing a map between multiple people, it would be helpful if the NextPage Version History Map displayed authoritative and candidate versions of a MindManager map. NextPage performs its magic by adding metadata to document files (the NextPage "Digital Thread") ... perhaps the same can be done for maps.


6. Action Point Delegation / Task Assignment. When creating a map to coordinate action between team members, action points are established and assigned to people. There isn't the option today of having those task assignments automatically display as a personalized dashboard for each individual. In other words, the person authoring the map can write or type a person's name as the delegated owner, but when that person reviews the map, they have to initiate further action to capture those action points into their action point tracking system, either through a link to Outlook (via a Map Part), or a Topic Alert. The most simple way I can think of to enable action point delegation with personalized dashboarding within MindManager is to enable Topic Alerts to be set on the behalf of another person, to have a status option on a Topic Alert (current or historical alert), and to display all current Topic Alerts across all MindManager maps to each individual in a dashboard.

What About You?
Do you have plans to use MindManager 6 for coordinating team action at your place? What collaborative action features most appeal to you, or which ones do you think Mindjet should add? Please leave a comment below, or drop me an email.

Comments

[Nick Duffill]

Michael

Interesting list. Idea #6 is already available. Gyronix ResultsManager uses MindManager as a platform, and tracks delegated tasks and next actions in maps, creating personal dashboards that bring together prioritised actions across an individual's project portfolio. ResultsManager works on MindManager X5, X5 Pro, Basic 6 and Pro 6.

Best regards
Nick

[Florian Woegerer]

Hi Michael,

im with you on nearly all your points. Collaboration inside of mindmanager would be significant step of making mindmanager not only a brainstorming tool, but the Number one Base for all project work.

Advanced collaboration, like multi-user real time editing and notifying and seeing peoples status would increase the value of mindmanager significantly...

Keep it rolling :)

Regards,
Florian