Qualiteg Selection, Idea Creation #5: How to Use Mandalart

Hello to everyone visiting the Qualiteg blog—I'm Michele. Working on AI-driven new businesses and marketing, I hear certain questions from clients again and again. Through this blog, I would like to share my own answers to the challenges that anyone exploring AI-powered business development is likely to face.

Experience how far your ideas can spread!

One wall many people hit in the idea-creation process is expanding their thinking. To generate new ideas, you need to think freely, unconstrained by existing frames. A tool that helps here is the Mandalart. In this article, we take a detailed look at how to use it.

Perhaps best suited to working alone?

The Mandalart chart became famous recently as the goal-setting method used by Shohei Ohtani, but we actually rarely use it in workshops. The reason is that it is not particularly well suited to group work.

It is, however, an excellent tool for digging deep into your thinking when working alone, so I am glad to have the chance to walk you through it today.

What is Mandalart?

Mandalart is a coined term combining "mandala" and "art": a technique that expands associations using a 3×3 grid. You come up with eight keywords derived from the central theme, and then generate eight new ideas from each of those. By creating a new Mandalart centered on each of the eight surrounding keywords, you can broaden and deepen your thinking. The name comes from the way it spreads outward like a mandala.

The basic structure of a Mandalart

A Mandalart consists of nine cells in a 3×3 grid, with the theme written in the center cell. In the remaining eight cells you write ideas or elements related to that theme. You then expand each of those cells into its own 3×3 grid, making the ideas more concrete and more complete as you go. In this way, a single initial theme yields as many as 64 ideas.

How to use a Mandalart: the basics

1. Draw a 3×3 grid and write the main theme in the center.
2. In the surrounding eight cells, write keywords you associate with the main theme.
3. Create a new 3×3 grid centered on each keyword, and expand your associations in the same way.
4. In the end, you arrive at 81 (9×9) ideas.

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Characteristics and advantages of Mandalart

• Visual organization: the relationships between ideas are clear at a glance.
• Forced association: having to fill all eight cells surfaces ideas you would not normally come up with.
• Divergence and convergence: you can spread your thinking wide while still narrowing down to ideas aligned with the theme.
• Works solo or in groups: you can tackle it alone in deep focus, or trade ideas as a team.

Tips for using it effectively

a) Set a time limit
A time limit makes intuitive ideas more likely to surface. For example, try allowing about five minutes for each stage.

b) Suspend judgment
Save the question of whether an idea is good or bad for later; first, focus on writing down whatever comes to mind.

c) Favor quantity over quality
The more ideas you generate, the better your chances of finding high-quality ones among them.

d) Bring in different perspectives
When working as a team, composing the group from members with diverse backgrounds makes a wider range of ideas more likely to emerge.

Why is Mandalart effective for idea creation?

Mandalart is effective for idea creation in the following three ways.

1. It forces your thinking to expand: Writing out keywords associated with the central theme surfaces unexpected ideas you would not normally be conscious of.
2. It gives you multiple perspectives: Filling the eight cells with keywords lets you view the theme from many angles and discover new facets of it.
3. It lets you dig deeper: By drilling further into each associated keyword, you can arrive at more concrete ideas and solutions.

How to use a Mandalart: in practice

Now let's walk through the actual steps of generating ideas with a Mandalart.

1. Set a theme: First, write the theme you want to generate ideas for in the center cell. Choose something concrete, such as "topics for new blog posts" or "improving customer satisfaction."
2. Fill in associated keywords: Write keywords you associate with the central theme in the surrounding eight cells. Free-flowing thinking is essential here—set aside conventional wisdom and write down whatever comes to mind.
3. Drill into each keyword: Create a new Mandalart centered on each keyword you wrote, and keep expanding your associations. Repeating this step brings more concrete ideas and solutions into view.
4. Organize your ideas: Review the completed Mandalart as a whole, group related ideas, and set priorities to narrow down to the ideas worth acting on.

A concrete example: coming up with topics for new blog posts

For example, if you build a Mandalart around the theme "topics for new blog posts," keywords like the following might come to mind.

• Central theme: topics for new blog posts
• Surrounding keywords:
  • Readers' pain points
  • Latest trends
  • Seasonal events
  • Specialized knowledge
  • Past success stories
  • Competitive analysis
  • Hobbies and interests
  • A unique point of view

Drilling further into these keywords leads to concrete blog post topics—for example, "readers' pain points" → "work efficiency" → "time management techniques" → "introducing specific tools."

Summary: open the door to new ideas with Mandalart!

Mandalart is a powerful idea-creation tool that anyone can use with ease. By stretching the boundaries of your thinking and awakening dormant inspiration, it helps you produce genuinely innovative ideas.

Give Mandalart a try and open up new possibilities in your idea creation.

A quick tip:

• Digital tools are also worth considering. There are plenty of online Mandalart builders available.
• Creating a Mandalart as a team is effective too. Bringing in different perspectives yields a more diverse set of ideas.

Thank you very much for reading this column to the end. At Qualiteg, we provide training and consulting on AI technology and new business planning. If this has piqued your interest, or if you have specific needs, please feel free to reach out via our contact form.

We also offer a popular workshop for those who want to master the steps of new business creation. The training focuses on having each participant think about the business from an executive's point of view, and the content is designed not only for planners but also for their counterpart engineers, designers, and marketers.