User case study: The Power of Inspiration - Supporting Success from Higher Education to the Workplace!

Meet Chris Tod, who has been using Inspiration for 12 years - from his time at university, where it supported him with essay planning and writing, through to his current role in the workplace. Chris continues to use mind maps to help him understand and navigate complex processes and procedures. Reflecting on his experience, Chris says: “Inspiration is absolutely phenomenal for creating essays!”

Chris was first introduced to Inspiration version 9 at university through the DSA. His Needs Assessor quickly recognised that, as a highly visual learner, Inspiration would be the tool that best supported him. It is the software he has continued to use ever since - from his university studies, through employment, and now in his own IT business.

Did you find Inspiration easy to learn how to use or did you get training to help?

"I picked Inspiration up within 5 minutes of using it! And I was able to do what I wanted to do with it, but they (the needs assessors) just literally got me to do it again and again and again, repetition - to make sure it got stuck in my brain.

So I got given a variety of different pieces of software, but Inspiration is the one I use the most. And when I was at university, and in my working life, it's the one I've used and kept going with. There is no other software from uni I still use apart from Inspiration."

What version of Inspiration are you using?

“I’ve just upgraded to 12, because to be fair I’ve got an enterprise license so I get all the upgrades. I think it’s brilliant. I love it. To be fair, some of the new features I didn’t even realise were there until I got the demo session and I went through it, and that’s how I learned there were new things that I didn’t even know existed from some of the previous versions I used. It was nice to see the evolution and where it’s gone to where it’s come from.”

What are the types of challenges that you found Inspiration helped you with?

“Essay writing! I did computer science so a lot of what I did obviously was coding and programming, which obviously it could help with slightly less - although actually now it’d be very beneficial because back then it didn’t support the equations and obviously I know now that it does. So actually, to be fair, it would be even more beneficial now than it would back then. So it's just a bit of a shame, really, because if I did my degree now, I would use it even more. But the main thing I did then was to help me with writing essays. So although I'd code something, some of my assignments were very ethics-based. So we did a lot on computer ethics and the ethics behind hacking for example. We had to do essays about this, so obviously I could brainstorm my ideas and at a push of a button it would turn it into an essay structure. Then I could populate that essay structure with further detail and it gave me my essay. And I got first class honours on that module! That was the only module I got first class honours on. So, I was actually very pleased. It shows the software does work and does enable students to be able to achieve their full potential.”

How do you find Inspiration helps you now in the workplace?

“In my previous role, I had to memorise processes. So, a key example was one of the jobs, I had to re-image computers and it was about a 50-step process. So I made a mind map of that 50 stage process. And then I followed that process every single day. And I got that process, printed it up and put it on the wall by me I and just followed it. And that's how I learned the process of how to reimage things. I then made a separate one for clearing a computer down and removing all the registry keys.

And even in my business to this day, if I have to do a cost analysis or a statement of works, I can jot the ideas down in that and still use the essay format in a way. And the way it will turn into an essay format (outline), I can actually then put that into a statement of work template and it will make an actual statement of work. So it's adapting the features that are there and using it for a different purpose.

I've got to do a presentation as I've got bids for something, so I'm going to use the presentation feature where it makes a PowerPoint for you. Now, I haven't done this yet. I didn't even know this was a thing until I learned about it recently. So I'm going to experiment with that. Because to me, being able to turn my mind maps into a full presentation will be invaluable and will save me so much time. And it's going to be a much more interactive, interesting way to make my pitch presentations than just having loads and loads of screens with things on. So I'm very much looking forward to doing that.”

We caught up with Chris recently to see how he got on with Presentation Manager and he was delighted to tell us: "I just secured a new customer and delivered my pitch using the presentation mode; it went really well and it saved so much time!"