When you sit down to create a product, how do you put down your thoughts and organize them into something coherent? How do you figure out what you need to include and what the scope of the product will be? If you like to think visually and in vibrant colors, consider mind mapping. Here are a 10 tools with which you can explore mind mapping with.

1. Freemind – used this one for a while. Love that it can be used on different operating systems. I had one on my PC and one on my Mac, shared files easily between the two. Free and open source. Great deal.
2. Mindjet – this seems to be the Cadillac of mind mapping software for Windows. I personally have not used it but I know of marketers who swear by it.
3. Mindomo – web based and desktop, free for basic account, $6/month premium. This looks really nice I like how interactive it is.
4. Mindmeister – one of the first web based ones I was introduced to, free basic and they have three other plans available too starting at $4/month
5. Bubbl.us – web based and as far as I can tell free. May not have as rich a tool set as Mindomo but pretty interesting overall.
6. Comapping – another web based mind map tool but the approach is group mind mapping. Team members can add/expand to ideas, share maps, email, attach documents and links instantly or at their own time. I’m kinda intrigued. For a team of 5 people, it is $119/year.
7. WriteMaps – pretty simple and straightforward, more of a flow chart system than a mind map system. Free.
8. Gliffy – this is a web based flow chart creator. You can share your flow charts with others like your assistants. I’ve used it to share and plan software project outlines with my developers and create web based ’systems’ so it’s easy to train new assistants. $5 a month for 1 user, $25/month for 10 users.
9. Google Docs – the new drawing tool is pretty easy to use and comes with some great pre-loaded shapes that help emphasize the visual aspects.
10. Livescribe – ah, nothing is better than good old fashioned pen and paper. But this is not just any old pen and paper. One of my personal favorite mind mapping methods.

If you’re new to mind mapping, you might want to consider picking up a good guide book like The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain’s Untapped Potential to help. While I’ve found it works extremely well for me that is probably because I was actually sent to a 3 day intensive training on creative thinking and mind mapping at the age of 16. I’ve tried to share how awesome a tool this for us business owners and marketers but have learned if you don’t exactly grasp the concept, it can be confusing or you might not think you are a visual thinker. I actually don’t buy that because before I went for the training, I never thought I could think this way either.