Visual thinking: organising ideas with drawings

Explain what visual thinking is and state two advantages of communicating a business idea with a diagram rather than a lengthy text.

The basic visual language is built with few elements: containers (rectangles, ovals), connectors (arrows, lines), simple icons and colour. Explain what each element usually communicates and give an example of its use in a diagram about a company.

Explain what sketchnoting (visual notes) is and give two advantages of taking notes this way in class compared to copying whole paragraphs.

Distinguish between a mind map (ideas radiating freely from a central point) and a concept map (concepts linked by connecting words), and justify which you would use for an initial brainstorming session and which for studying a textbook topic.

Condense this paragraph into a maximum of five keywords: "SWOT analysis allows a company to know its internal situation, with its strengths and weaknesses, and the external one, with the opportunities and threats of the environment, in order to define strategies". Explain what criterion you followed to choose them.

You have a two-page text explaining how the franchising system works. Describe the steps to convert it into a useful visual diagram (reading, identifying key ideas, prioritising, choosing a structure, and drawing) and what type of diagram you would choose for this content.

A storyboard is a sequence of panels depicting how a user uses a service. Explain its purpose before launching a product and sketch, describing in words, the first three panels for an app that books electric taxis.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

Sketch with words a four-panel storyboard of a customer using an online tool rental service for the first time (discovering the website, choosing and booking, collecting the tool, returning it and rating). Point out in which panel the main friction can arise and why.

You can do it on paper and send a photo with your answer.

The conversion funnel analytics dashboard of an urban parking app provides the following monthly data:

• Step 1 (Search and geolocation of available space): 12.000 users (100,0 %).

• Step 2 (Selection of parking facility and hourly rate): 10.200 users (85,0 %).

• Step 3 (Entry of license plate and vehicle details): 9.384 users (92,0 % of the previous step).

• Step 4 (Payment gateway and booking confirmation): 2.064 completed users (a 78,0 % drop-off rate in the final step!).

1. a) Design a four-panel analytical storyboard (described textually with precision) contrasting the intended user experience with the actual friction point at checkout. Formulate two well-grounded economic/operational hypotheses (e.g., hidden fees added at the last second or friction caused by an unintegrated banking gateway) that explain customer churn.
2. b) Formulate three quantitative and user-behavior questions that the management team should ask based on the storyboard, and propose a redesign of the visual purchase flow that reduces the transaction costs perceived by the user to increase the final conversion rate.

An electric micromobility startup presents an impeccable visual scheme at an investor round: a circular diagram illustrating a "virtuous circle" according to which a larger fleet on the streets automatically generates brand visibility, massive user attraction, and exponential profits, concluding that "the model explains itself and a good graphic replaces any cumbersome analysis."

1. a) Refute the company's claim by identifying three essential economic-financial dimensions (at least one referring to the fixed vs. variable cost structure, another to working capital, and another to the regulatory framework/municipal concessions) that are completely concealed within that visual scheme.
2. b) Design the structure of a hybrid decision-making report: justify which two key quantitative metrics must mandatorily accompany the diagram to verify the break-even point and the risk of insolvency, arguing how the visual and analytical elements should be articulated to avoid decisions based on graphical biases.

A traditional gourmet food company plans to launch a monthly subscription box service featuring artisanal products. The management team decides to use solely the Business Model Canvas to plan the entire project, intending to evaluate both financial viability, customer unboxing experience, and the impact of potential delivery delays with it.

1. a) Refute management's decision by justifying the structural limitations of the Business Model Canvas in capturing temporal variables, customer emotions, and service touchpoints.
2. b) Design a methodological matrix where you allocate the Business Model Canvas, the Customer Journey Map, and the Storyboard with economic justification across three key phases:

1. Viability and strategic fit phase (alliances, cost structure, and recurring revenue).

2. Operational diagnosis and improvement phase (journey from order placement to unboxing and after-sales service).

3. Fundraising and investor pitch phase (agile communication of the value proposition in one minute).

Demonstrate how the insights gained in one tool inevitably feed back into the other two.

In the operations department of a logistics company, a technician refuses to apply visual tools, arguing: "I have no artistic skills and I don't know how to draw; visual thinking is superficial marketing, and only spreadsheets are useful for inventory management."

1. a) Refute this argument from the perspective of managerial efficiency and economic decision-making. Justify the difference between figurative art and business visual grammar, demonstrating how three basic abstract resources (visual hierarchy by size, causality arrows with weighted flows, and color coding or container groupings) reduce cognitive load and reaction times to contingencies compared to a 500-row data table.
2. b) Conceptually design a basic logical-visual scheme (using only standard geometric shapes and connectors) that depicts the following operational alert situation: a transport strike increases supplier lead times from 2 to 8 days, depleting the central warehouse's safety stock, triggering stockout costs, and threatening the profitability of committed orders subject to late-delivery penalties.