Did your grammar school teacher ever tell you to brainstorm your ideas using a spider web?

Let’s see… I want to write a story about summer vacation. We spent 5 days in Orlando, went to sea world, Disney world, and spent a lot of time at the pool.

Did it work for you? In modern day business we call that Mind Mapping. You take your central idea (i.e. your project) and then break it down into further detail (phases, activities, tasks). The best part is you can start with the stuff you know and then drag and drop your ideas on to phases as you see fit. No more writing your thoughts down on a spiral notebook page. It’s done on your computer. Now if you are really smart, which I am sure you are since you’re reading this post, you are thinking about hooking your computer up to a projector and meeting with your project kickoff team to scope out the project details.

Bottom line… it is a must in project management. If don’t have a Mind Mapping tool, what are you waiting for? Get one now. And use it!

So how do you pick a good mind mapping tool? Well, there are a lot out there, but I have narrowed it down to two; the Coke and Pepsi of mind mapping, Mindjet MindManager & Matchware MindView. (Huh? It seems the letter M is very popular with these guys).

What I like about both of them:
Easy to start using out of the box
Appealing user interface (Windows – adopted the ribbon interface, Mac version – looks and feels like a Mac product should.

What I don’t like about both:
The Mac version for both has less features than their Windows counterpart.
.

MindManager
Cost $399
Demo: 30 Day
Gantt View – No, Integrates with JCVGantt (Boo!)
Office Integration – Yes
Website Resources, Support, and Help – Yes
Mac Version (less features, cost $129)

MindView
Cost $389
Demo: 20 Day (Boo!)
Gantt View – Yes (except on Mac)
Office Integration – Yes
Website Resources, Support, and Help – Yes
Mac Version (less features, cost $229)

To sum up, these are both good products. I started using MindManager first, and it was the only mind mapping tool I liked, until I found MindView, which essentially offers the same thing, but with an integrated Gantt view. So which is Coke and which is Pepsi? That’s for you to decide!