Maps are key to discovering the idiosyncrasies of each domain.

Using information gathered from techniques such as Jobs To Be Done, I use a variety of tools — among my favourites are Whimsical, Notion and Mermaid.

Whimsical is excellent for initial Ideation, running brainstorming sessions in person or online with many group sizes, at the same time or asynchronously. Whimsical is an infinite canvas whiteboard, with the responsiveness of Figma but embracing more of a fat marker ↗ approach to its features for speed and focus. Its ability to handle multimodal boards, combining sticky notes, mind maps, flowcharts, wireframes and images have proven invaluable for the early discovery stages of a project.

Notion can go from single documents or meeting notes to large relational databases. It has the approachability of Google Docs and Trello but retains the potential to replace large traditional systems such as ticketing. Notion embraces the dynamic spirit of “the journal” from NLS ↗ best known from “The Mother of All Demos” ↗, allowing almost everything to be transformed into almost anything else. For teams and institutions with long running projects, pattern languages are powerful tools and Notion is a great way to setup and manage them.

Mermaid is a generative chart language which can be used to create flowcharts and many other chart types. Mermaid is most suited to situations where the connections and their order are still being explored, when reshaping a flowchart manually is time consuming and breaks flow. I tend to use Mermaid within Notion to benefit from multiplayer editing, revision history and context within a larger wiki or pattern language.