What Is Mindjet > Customer Stories > Interviews

I'm 32 years old and currently based in Brazil. I have a background in computer science and have worked as a software engineer in large corporations for nearly a decade. In the last few years, I switched gears a little bit and, while still in the software development industry, my main focus is now helping organizations with project management and process improvement. The software development business allows me to design and create solutions using no raw materials other than knowledge and creativity. Out of this fascination about how we can do truly amazing things with our minds alone, about one year ago I created the site Litemind, which I find myself dedicating more and more time to. The site is about exploring ways to use our minds efficiently, a concept that transcends any profession or industry. A big portion of the site is dedicated to mind mapping, which I find to be an essential tool for better use of our minds.

As one of the millions of knowledge workers in the world, I can speak to some of the challenges we must overcome. A few include: time management, understanding and managing customers' expectations, communicating information effectively — the usual suspects. However, for me, the greatest challenge is dealing with information overload, that is, taking an enormous amount of uncontrolled input and distilling what's really important in order to take the right actions.

Handling information overload is like a puzzle with many pieces. A big part of it is being relentless about trying to extract meaning from information. Getting into the habit of asking “what does this mean to me?” as soon as you get exposed to new information is crucial. Having a streamlined process to deal with information inflow is paramount, too.

What I've found is that mind mapping creates a discipline that helps me in dealing with information overflow. Let me explain. Mind mapping is, at many times, about extracting simple keywords from complex contexts and noticing relationships between concepts. This process can, for example, easily reduce a 10-page report to a simple, one-page mind map.

Extracting the essence of information is the rationale behind most of the mind maps I create, such as the book summaries I make available on my website.

The one situation that delights me the most about mind mapping is when I use it for interviewing clients and to gather requirements for projects. The scene usually goes like this: I open up my computer and fire up MindManager. As the customer describes their problem, I pay close attention to the conversation, simultaneously using MindManager to jot down keywords that capture what's being said. At the end of our session, in no more than 20 seconds, I export the map to a PowerPoint presentation (all in a pre-formatted template, with the customer's logo and color scheme), and give a mini-presentation of what was just said. Right there, instantly. That “wows” the customer every single time. Many tell me that having this instant presentation is mind-blowing, and thinking about it, it really is. A great deal of my reputation with customers is nothing more than taking advantage of this amazing feature in MindManager... The job is fully done by MindManager, but in the end, it seems I get all the credit.

The inspiration behind my seven MindManager book summary maps from thought leading authors was my love of reading, both for pleasure and for the learning. But the truth is that no matter how inspiring and actionable the book is, no matter how fired up I am right after I finish reading it, the ideas in it just seem to "fade out" in my mind with time. After a few months have passed, I always felt the need to “refresh the book” on my mind.

The idea behind the summaries is to capture the knowledge in the book in an ultra-compact format, allowing me recall it in no more than 5 minutes. And, really, 5 minutes is all it takes to “reread a book” using a mind map.

After I created my website last year, I figured that readers would benefit from these maps as well, so I decided to start sharing them there. All the summaries can be found for free in MindManager format in the “book summary” category on my website.

Whenever I have the opportunity to test, and thus, influence the development of, a new version of MindManager, I jump right in. There are many things I like about MindManager 8, but one, in particular, appeals to more to me more than others — the new “task automation” features.

I've been using MindManager for years to brainstorm and define tasks for the projects I manage. But in these projects, as soon as the planning is done, I have to export the tasks to an external tool so I can more easily manage their execution. The problem with that is that planning and executing are never two clear-cut activities: you have to constantly go back, brainstorm and rearrange tasks during the project.

With the new task automation features MindManager 8, I can perform task management right within MindManager. Completion status and dates now cascade properly to parent tasks, and dependencies between tasks in different branches are respected when the tool calculates time estimates for the project. Not having to switch data back and forth between applications and being able to keep the tasks always in “brainstorming mode” is invaluable for me.