Systems maps help to explain the key components of a system and their relationships. User or trends research will generate large amounts of data. Systems thinking is a tool to help explore the relative importance and relationships between different factors.

Creating a systems map will help to identify patterns as well as cause and effect. They are useful as a shared thinking tool and can help articulate alternative points of view about complex issues.

How: Identify the key issue that you want at the centre of your system - the main story that emerges from research you have carried out. Create a list of all the factors that could have an effect on this core issue.

Post-It notes, hexagons and movable arrows can be used to turn these factors into a dynamic map. As your arguments evolves and changes shape take photographs to document the thinking process.

Issues: Systems thinking requires analytical thinkers who have been immersed in the research process and can apply thinking based on research findings not on presumptions.

I used this process with teams in a series of BBC Interactive TV futures workshops. Teams were able identify forces and trends that would impact the sector and the complex dynamics between them.