It's been a few years and a few versions since I used MindJet's MindManager. I downloaded the five day trial to see if it was the right tool to help me withe planning/documentation of a rather complex personal product. Within a few minutes I was up and running and had created a complex mind map with dozens of nodes and attached notes. I was also able to quickly transform my notes from Word, Visio and my Basecamp's Writeboard (a private Wiki).

MindManager's adoption of the Office 2007 ribbon was a pleasant surprise. Within minutes I had figured our the UI and most of the options. Note to all ISVs with a client side app: consider the ribbon! Microsoft has spent a small fortune doing the user experience research. Unless the UI is your competitive advantage then building a UI style project cost you probably don't want to invest in.

A could of my fellow PM Leads on CRM are MindManager fans. I could definitely see MindManager as being a core planning tool for our next release. To my colleagues: fire up the free MindManager Viewer and send in that procurement order for MindManager 7 Pro.