Welcome to AYOA, the latest addition to the QBS Distribution portfolio. Getting stuff done is great, but getting the right stuff done is essential. Being creative allows you to explore all your options, so you take your best ideas forward. That’s why AYOA believe you can’t be productive without being creative. We sat down with Chris Griffiths, CEO of OpenGenius to get an introduction to AYOA and how they can help turn ideas into tasks you can action and manage. Can you describe Ayoa for us in a nutshell? Ayoa makes creativity a seamless part of your every day. By combining Mind Mapping with Task Management and collaboration features, Ayoa provides you with a space to generate great ideas, and turn these ideas into action – so you can achieve your goals and be in control of your workload, whilst staying motivated and inspired to achieve. 
How did you come up with the name ‘Ayoa’? Ayoa is a name that we all love here at OpenGenius. Whilst Ayoa doesn’t have an existing meaning, it’s a perfect fit for us as we believe this tool is something completely unique and fresh – and so Ayoa is a name that can grow to take on more meaning, as our software does the same. What makes Ayoa unique compared to other task management tools? Most task management tools focus purely on getting your tasks done. Which is great, but what if you’re busy working on the wrong tasks? Ticking off tasks may make you feel productive, but what if this work isn’t actually serving your end goals? In today’s oversaturated digital world, the importance of creativity and innovation in our work is more important than ever. We believe every business and individual has the power to harness innovation to their advantage. Ayoa prioritizes creativity in the work process by encouraging you to brainstorm ideas in a Mind Map, before turning these ideas directly into tasks you can action and manage. 
Ayoa breaks the mold of what you’d expect from task management. Its uniquely visual interface allows you to break free from never-ending to-do lists and overflowing emails. As our most dominant sense, our visual experience is the main way that we make sense of the world and learn new things. It’s therefore unsurprising that the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text – and Ayoa helps to facilitate this natural way of exploring your ideas and achieving your goals. For people who have never used Mind Mapping before, how can they introduce it to their work? A Mind Map is a visual thinking tool, ideal for brainstorming, exploring ideas and presenting information in a uniquely visual way. Take a moment to think about how your brain works; once you come up with an idea for something, this naturally sparks off different trains of thought. A Mind Map works the same way, but captures every idea grown from another. We created Ayoa Mind Maps to give both teams and individuals a space to foster, incubate and develop their best ideas. 
For example, if you have various ideas floating around your head, you may tend to grab a pen and notepad to jot them down. By adding these thoughts to a Mind Map instead, you can come back to them later to expand on them further, so no idea is lost or forgotten. You can also use Mind Mapping during team meetings as a way of capturing everyone’s ideas in one place so that you can ideate collaboratively. How is the nature of work changing, and how did this influence your decision to launch Ayoa? The nature of work is changing rapidly, with technology evolving at a pace like never before. Software and tech exist to make our lives easier – but the trouble is, we’re now using tech and software for everything, which is actually making us less productive as workplaces are inundated with apps, which we’re constantly switching between. Not only is this terrible for our focus, but it’s more likely for work to get lost, with employees trudging through their various applications trying to find where exactly they stored a particular idea or task. With Ayoa, we wanted to create a hub for people to store everything they need for their work, with quick and easy access. 
Ultimately, in our world of information, knowledge is no longer power. The true power now lies in the creation of new knowledge to enable you to stand out from the crowd – and creativity lies at the heart of this. We know that individuals and teams want to progress and come up with big ideas, but they don’t know how – that’s why we’ve made Ayoa, as a way of facilitating that process. What’s the next step for Ayoa? We’re currently working on some really exciting new features, all of which can found on our Product Roadmap. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to introduce even more powerful additions to Ayoa to make it the best tool it can be. The future is bright for Ayoa – all we can say is ‘watch this space’ – there’s plenty more to come! Where can people find out more about Ayoa? You can find out more about what Ayoa is all about, our features and how we can help you achieve your goals over on our website here. We also post regular insights on creativity, innovation and work-life tips over on the Ayoa Blog.
About the Author 
Chris Griffiths is founder and CEO of OpenGenius, and world-leading expert on the application of innovation and Mind Mapping®. He has helped drive business growth for thousands worldwide, including teams and individuals from Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies, the United Nations and Nobel Laureates. Chris is a bestselling author on creativity and innovative thinking skills. His software, Ayoa, is used by teams and individuals around the world to improve their creativity and productivity.
