Concept Mapping can be used for a variety of purposes. The following is a sampling of possible uses:

1. Business Consulting: An organization or business can use Concept Mapping as a first step in strategic or operational planning, to develop a new marketing strategy, as a framework for problem solving, as a tool in change management or business reengineering, or to help set up a measurement or evaluation system.

2. Business Training: Many businesses are currently using concept mapping as the standard method for developing a shared vision for a training program, helping the training development team keep “on track” as they develop the training, assessing the fidelity of implementation in initial pilot conducts, and evaluating the effectiveness of the training.

3. Product Development: Concept mapping is an excellent tool for product development and prototype testing. Target client groups can be involved in a concept mapping process to delineate the features they would like to see in a product. They can also rate how well different prototype products address these features and the analysts can use this information to conduct a product preference analysis.

4. Social Sciences: A social scientist can use Concept Mapping to help articulate a theory, provide a basis for measurement, or as a framework for analyzing research results. Concept mapping has been used effectively in a wide range of social research projects in health, mental health, and education.

5. Community: A community or neighborhood organization can use concept mapping to plan for more coordinated community services, assess public opinion on a topic, or develop a mission statement. Concept mapping is an excellent tool for conducting community-based “Issue Summits” designed to bring together a broad cross-section of the community to address a pressing problem or strategically important issue.

6. Pattern Matching: Because concept maps show an enormous amount of information at once, they enable participants to see patterns in their thinking. One of the most important uses of a concept map is its ability to enable “pattern matching.” For instance, we might want to know whether two different participant groups have consensus about what’s important on a map. In this case, we would want to “match” the patterns of importance ratings for the two subgroups. Or, we might want to see whether we have achieved the outcomes that we expected to achieve with respect to the ideas on a map. Here we might “match” our initial expectations for change in each map idea with the change we subsequently observe or measure

7. Qualitative Analysis: Concept mapping is a valuable method for analyzing qualitative data. You can enter text directly into the or you can import ASCII text or RTF (Rich Text Format) files from other s. You can easily code your text and export the coded text statements directly into your project. Then, you can use the full power of the concept mapping methodology to sort and rate the coded statements and develop “thematic” concept maps and pattern matches of your qualitative data.

8. Decision Making: Concept mapping can be used as the basis for decision making. For instance, let’s assume your organization has to decide among one of three alternative plans to address some issue. You might generate statements that describe the features that would be desirable in an “ideal” plan. The participants would sort and rate (for importance or desirability) the feature statements. Then, you would set up one rating for each of the three options you’re considering. For each option, you would rate how well the option addresses each of the features. When you’ve developed and saved a map, you can then use pattern matching to compare the three options and decide which is considered “best” by different stakeholder groups. You would do this using the “Utility Score” function of the pattern matching module. For erach option, you would obtain an overall utility by combining the feature importance ratings with the degree to which that option addresses each feature (the utilities). The option with the highest overall utility score is considered the “best” choice for those conditions.

9. Other Uses: Perhaps most important of all, Concept Mapping can have positive effects on the cohesiveness of the participant group and on the development of a shared vision. Most groups find the process a fun and efficient alternative to committee meetings. Concept Mapping leads to a group product that participants can take pride in and use to move toward achieving their goals and objectives. The potential uses for Concept Mapping are limited only by the imagination and creativity of the users.