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Course 5. MMD OppMaps

5. Mental Model Diagrams as Opportunity Maps

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Recorded Lectures + Live Group Sessions

Visit the page at this link to purchase only the recorded lectures for this course.

Wednesdays at 10:30am San Francisco time

Thursdays at 5:30pm San Francisco time

More about the timezones and dateline

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.

Employers & Disability in the Workplace, a mental model diagram by Valerie Malzer, Sarah von Schrader, designed by Camille G. Lee, researched in conjunction with Indi Young. Employment & Disability Institute, ILR School, Cornell University

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

Course Features:

  • Downloadable diagrams & learning tools
  • Exercises and practice during the live group sessions
  • Counts toward Certficate of Problem Space Research
  • Slack workspace membership

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
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Recordings + Live Group Sessions

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Regular

When your organization will cover the cost, e.g. your employer is paying

Price per individual: US $776.00

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Group A

10:30am San Francisco time

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5:30pm San Francisco time

Govt / Military / Non-profit

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Price per individual: US $582.00

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Out-of-Pocket

When you will NOT be reimbursed for the cost by anyone

Price per individual: US $388.00

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Extreme Currency Exchange

When you pay from a country with an extreme conversion rate to US$, e.g. Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Peru, Serbia, Ukraine

Price per individual: US $80.00

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Pricing for Teams

Discounts from the Regular price level are available for groups/teams attending the class together.

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

Contact us to enroll your team:

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Refund Policy

Refunds are possible up until 2 days prior to your course start date.

This course brings an enriching perspective to the design principles that we may be using regularly. By putting empathy at the core, it inspires you to understand how to make the existing practices...
– Zulaikha Rahman - Jul-2021
I was worried about it being too advanced, but I felt comfortable within the first day. Thank you for making it accessible (and a lot of fun) even for newbies.
– Anna Malysheva - Jul-2020
Your course had a great influence on me personally as an individual who makes daily decisions to build digital products.
– Raul Loureiro - Jul-2020
I took all the courses in this series and this course brought it all together for me not only from a research perspective but also how I could merge the new learnings into my regular approach as a...
– Zulaikha Rahman - Jul-2021
I like that you encourage challenging questions.
– Anna Malysheva - Jul-2020
If you wanna know the power of Mental Model Diagrams, this is "The Course". You won't find anywhere else the variety of examples, applications, and strategies with stakeholders that Indi shares.
– Raul Loureiro - Jul-2020

Other Languages

Take this course in Chinese through UXOffer:

Previous start dates

7-Jul-21 | 24-Jun-20 | 12-Jun-19

4. Thinking Styles
5. Mental Model Diagrams as Opportunity Maps
6. Framing Your Study

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