Overview of GroupMap

GroupMap is a powerful tool to improve the speed and quality of your group brainstorming by facilitating discussions and building consensus. GroupMap is used around the world, both virtually and in person, to capture people's thoughts in real-time.

DESIGN YOUR MAP AROUND YOUR CONVERSATION

Choose from a library of map templates by category, or create your own. This can help focus thinking and the conversation, depending on the outcome you wish to achieve.

You can also choose from different map styles being:

• Lists - Great for brainstorming quickly on the mobile. Create a single or multiple lists where ideas can be easily added into one or more lists with topic headers.

  
  

• Mind Map - Useful for expanding thoughts and creativity. Starting with a core idea, you can then expand outwards with themes and subthemes.

  
  

• Charts - An easy way to compare where ideas are positioned against each other on one or two dimensions. Ideas can be positioned relative to each other across an x and y axis.

  
  
• Canvases - Create a full structured activity with specific topics, regions and workflow such as those seen in design thinking, 6 thinking hats, SWOT Analysis and more.

There are also customizable options for each map.

All Map Types

• Headings – Add topic themes, key questions, or concepts to focus on people’s thinking.
• Descriptions – Provide more detail for each heading.
• Color – Use the color palette to differentiate regions.
• Icons and Pictures – Gives your map a little personality by placing an icon as part of the backdrop. Ideas will be posted over the icon or picture.

For Charts

• Region – Give a region a specific name.
• Axis Label – Name the X and Y axis of the chart.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR PROCESS

GroupMap lets you add or remove steps to each map, allowing you to create a lightning-fast brainstorm through to a detailed think tank. Each step can be customized and reordered to achieve the best outcomes. You can also have the same step multiple times.

Manage each step by hiding it, allowing view-only access, or bringing all contributors to a specific step. Reports are generated for each step. 

GroupMap steps:

• Brainstorm – This lets people add ideas to a map. You can determine how people can contribute ideas to a map, including brainstorming style and the number of ideas people can add. You can choose the level of anonymity within the map.

  
  

• Group – This lets you or contributors put similar ideas into a group and rename it if needed. GroupMap keeps an audit trail of group ideas. People can then vote, rate, take action, or comment on groups of ideas. Use GroupMap AI to automatically suggest groups of ideas for you to discuss.

  
  

• Rate – This lets contributors individually rate each idea on a sliding scale or against a score. Results are automatically collated to display the average ratings and the spread of ratings given by everyone. GroupMap supports multiple variables as well as weighted ratings.

  
  

• Vote – People can prioritize the top ideas by allocating dot votes to ideas. You can decide if people can allocate one or more dot votes to an idea. You can also determine if they need to allocate all their votes before proceeding to the next step. Sort the results to show the most voted ideas at the top.

  
  

• Position – People can drag and drop ideas around the map. Use this sorting exercise to drag and drop the most important ideas to the top of the list, along the axis of a chart, or to a different region of a canvas. You can do this individually to see how aligned people are, or promote a collaborative approach so that everyone sees the same output. Reports will display the relative positions of ideas.

  
  

• Action – Add multiple actions to an idea based on what needs to be done, who is responsible, and when it needs to be done by. Generate a report with a list of actions for each idea.

  
  

• Results – This step displays the final outcomes from each step. You can view this at any time. Ideas can be sorted according to votes, ratings, or alphabetically. Use GroupMap AI to analyse, expand, summarize or explore the data using your own prompts.

  
  

• Consent – Provide a notification or have contributors acknowledge the terms and conditions of joining a map. Reports show you the date and time of people providing their consent.

  
  
• Survey – Create a basic survey with multiple-choice questions contributors can respond to prior to joining the map.

RUN YOUR ACTIVITY

Invite people into your map as Viewers, Contributors, or Facilitators with email, link, QR Code, or Map ID. GroupMap is compatible with all devices that support a modern browser and have an internet connection.

Lead people through the activity, facilitate discussion, and capture ideas and comments as you go through each step. People will see the process flow on their screens. You can see who is on your map and change their access level.

During your activity, you will have facilitator controls, including:

• Customizing the step – You can change the settings of a step at any point during the process.
• Size or sort ideas – Automatically rearrange ideas alphabetically, by their position, or based on the number of likes, dot votes, ratings, or scores so that the best ideas float to the top.
• Contributors can edit – This can be toggled on and off to manage when people can input ideas into a step.
• Contributors can view – This can be toggled off to hide a step.
• Lock contributors in this step – Brings all contributors to a particular step in your process.
• Import ideas from another map – This allows you to bring in ideas from a different map.
• Clear all ideas – Resets the map and clears out any previous data (note that this cannot be undone).
• Lock the map – Prevents further changes from occurring within the map.

SHARE YOUR OUTCOMES

All results are updated in real-time, allowing you to view them during or at the end of your process. Easily generate reports that can be shared by inviting people to the map or downloaded as a PDF, CSV, or Excel file.

• Map report – This shows an overall image of the map results screen (non-interactive) and the process flow and step settings used in the activity.
• Participants – This provides details of people in your map and their last activity. Clicking on a user name will show a report of what they did on the map.
• Ideas – This provides a list of ideas. Clicking on an idea shows further detail about the idea, such as any comments, votes, or ratings.
• Your report – Provides a summary of an individual’s activity in a map.
• Step reports (Brainstorm, Vote, etc) – This provides more details and a breakdown of activity by people in that step.

MANAGE YOUR MAPS

All maps that you create or have joined will be kept in your map library. Use the search bar to find your maps.

• Save as template – This allows you to save a template version of the map based on the customizations you have created as a separate map category. This is good for regular use.
• Use as a template – Creates another map using the existing map settings.
• Clone with ideas – Creates a copy of a map with all ideas in it (excludes other information). This is good if you want to refocus on ideas generated in a map.
• Archive – Hides the map from the main view in the Archived tab. This can be retrieved later if needed.
• Delete – Only available if you are the map creator. This deletes both the map and the data contained within it. Please note that this is non-reversible.