5. Mental Model Diagrams as Opportunity Maps
Live Online Classes
Course start date: 24-Aug-22
Access recordings until: 7-Nov-2021
Group A: course currently in progress! The next date will be in August 2022.
Group B: course currently in progress! The next date will be in August 2022.
If the class dates don’t work for you Follow-along recordings are available
Prerequisites
- How to conduct listening sessions for data collection
- Demo Listening Sessions
- Watch one of Indi’s latest recorded talks
- Listen to one of the latest Other Recordings
Recommended reading
- Articles about Persuading Stakeholders
- Articles about Empathy
- Articles about Demographic Assumptions
- Old Podcast – Design Thinking 101 Episode 6
- Old Podcast – Design Everywhere Episode 1
- Old Podcast – Aurelius Episode 15
Follow-along recordings
Experience the most recent recorded version of each class as Indi teaches it. Indi records the Wednesday class of each week. You get access to the recordings each Wednesday evening, after class.
The idea behind follow-along is that you can, for a much lower price, experience the latest course content and the energy of taking the course along with other people. The access period is limited to 6 weeks (from the first day of class) to encourage you to “follow-along” with the live class, interact with your fellow students on Slack, and even partner up with other follow-along students for homework, exercises, or just to discuss the course materials.
If you’re interested in a longer access time, please check out the Archive Access option.
About this course
Summary
Opportunity maps are tools for design strategy & inclusivity. They force you to look at your solutions through the perspective of people trying to accomplish their own purposes.
The other courses in this series cover how to create the diagrams. This is how to use them.
Opportunity maps are a powerful, mind-blowing way to see where you are making assumptions and decide how to methodologically, consciously, purposefully patch them. In this course, you’ll get to explore many examples of how organizations in software, manufacturing, insurance, higher education, and tech have discovered new clarity and product directions over the past decade. You’ll learn how to layer data from other research on the diagrams. You’ll see how to find gaps and weaknesses, measure progress, and even create scenarios for different thinking styles to help you create multiple ways for people to achieve their purposes.
Organizations use opportunity maps to clarify and categorize the potential paths hidden in front of them.
Above the horizontal line of a mental model diagram is a city-skyline picture of how the people you support think their way through their purpose. Mapped below street level, under each building, is the foundation, containing everything your organization does to support each tower. These diagrams are long-lived; each year you will add a little more knowledge to them. You will see a little further into your future. You can layer data from other research on top of the towers, measure progress toward better support for each thinking styles, and fill in the gaps beneath towers your organization is positioned to support. It’s an incredible way to confidently, systematically discover your potential.
You will learn how to:
- practice the neutral mindset of understanding people as people
- map your org’s capabilities to the towers in a mental model diagram
- look at your products & services through the perspective of people trying to accomplish their purpose
- analyze gaps & weaknesses from the perspective of the people you seek to support
- discover if your support is skewed to one thinking style, and if that is unintentional
- create support for perspectives and approaches you had not considered before
- pivot safely and quickly using the opportunity map
- measure how well you are truly supporting people
- create a matrix of scenarios for clarity in what “support” really needs to encompass
- mesh with JTBD and Design Thinking, providing richer, longer-lived data to feed process
Who is this for?
If you are a researcher, this course is for you! Product managers, designers, and leaders are also welcome, because more and more of you are tasked with conducting research, and you may as well do it correctly. The outcome needs to be a reliable foundation for your decision-making.
Learning paths for different roles
Sign up
Live Online Classes
US $ Price per Individual
| Group A | Group B | |
| Regular | $776 | $776 |
| Govt/Military/Non-Profit* | $582 | $582 |
| Out-of-Pocket* | $388 | $388 |
| Extreme Currency Exchange* | $80 | $80 |
| Access to current recordings of course | 4 months |
| Live discussions/Q&A during class | Yes |
| Downloadable slide decks | Yes |
| Review of your homework | Yes |
| Answer sheets for self-review | Yes |
| Detailed timestamps of recordings | Yes |
| Examples, exercises + other materials | Yes |
| Counts toward Certificate of PSR | Yes |
| Slack workspace membership | Yes |
Live Online Classes
US $ Price for a Team
If you have a team attending from one organization:
| 3 people ~15% | $660 each ($1980 total) |
| 4 people ~20% | $621 each ($2484 total) |
| 5 people ~25% | $582 each ($2910 total) |
| 6-10 people ~30% | $543 each |
| 11-15 people ~35% | $504 each |
| 16+ people ~40% | $466 each |
Follow-along Recordings
US $ Price per Individual
| Regular price | $256 |
| Govt/Military/Non-Profit price* | $225 |
| Out-of-Pocket price* | $194 |
| Extreme Currency Exchange price* | $40 |
| Access to current recordings of course | 6 weeks |
| Live discussions/Q&A during class | No |
| Downloadable slide decks | Yes |
| Review of your homework | No |
| Answer sheets for self-review | Yes |
| Detailed timestamps of recordings | Yes |
| Examples, exercises + other materials | Yes |
| Counts toward Certificate of PSR | No |
| Slack workspace membership | Yes |
*Pricing Level Details
Regular – When your organization will cover the cost, e.g. your boss is paying
Government/Military/Non-profit – When a government, military, or non-profit organization is covering your education cost
Out-of-Pocket – When you will NOT be reimbursed for the cost by anyone; also use this if you are a member of a union and your boss is not paying
Extreme Currency Exchange – Not in the US? When your purchasing power is at an extreme disadvantage with the US dollar, we have much bigger discounts. We want to include folks in Brazil, India, Ukraine, Russia, Malaysia, etc.
Refund Policy
Refunds are possible up until 2 days prior to your course start date.
Other Languages
Take this course in Chinese through UXOffer:
Previous start dates
7-Jul-21 | 24-Jun-20 | 12-Jun-19
