Mind map

A mind map puts one topic in the centre of a page and grows branches outward, each branch holding a sub-idea, and each of those branching again. Tony Buzan popularised the format in the 1970s and 80s, with curved branches, colour and single keywords on each line.

It is the fastest way to get a messy topic out of your head and into a shape someone else can look at.

What it is for

Two jobs, mostly. The first is divergence: you run a brainstorming session on “reasons people abandon the checkout” and the tree captures every branch as it appears. The second is structure: you take a pile of requirements or interview themes and see how they nest, which often turns out to be the first draft of a navigation or a report outline.

Limits

A mind map is a tree, so every item has exactly one parent. Real topics do not behave like that. “Delivery cost” belongs under both “price” and “logistics”, and the format cannot say so. When connections across branches matter, switch to a concept map, where nodes can link freely and links carry labels.

In practice

Use single words or short phrases, not sentences. Keep the centre specific: “Onboarding drop-off” produces something useful, “Our app” produces a wall. And stop treating it as an output. A mind map is a thinking tool, and it rarely belongs in a client deck.