Distilling, Organizing Text

Hobart Swan conducts a lot of interviews as part of his business creating content for technology and technology marketing companies. After each interview, Hobart send his audio recording to a transcription service to have them turn it into a text document. A typical 30 - minute interview creates about 15 pages of copy.

“Where I make my money is by combing through the document to find the most interesting and educational parts of the interview. I’ve tried printing out the narrative and physically cutting it into strips, which I then organize allover my desk.

I’ve also tried cutting and pasting the text document itself, but it is so easy to get overwhelmed by and lost in all the text. I’ve tried outlines, index cards, magic markers, and flip charts. Everything was just too unwieldy. Then I discovered ConceptDraw MINDMAP. ”

Using ConceptDraw MINDMAP Hobart can get the same amount of work done in about 8 hours - a 60% reduction in the time.

An example of a mind map Hobart made of a speech by the CEO of a technology company.

Read the full story from Hobart Swan here