How to use Affinity Diagraming to Organize Research Findings in Ideation Workshops
Collaboratively Organize Issues & Insights with Affinity Diagraming
Affinity Diagrams are a tool pioneered by User Experience Researchers modified from the KJ diagramming method (named after author Kawakita Jiro) to organize large amounts data into similar groups based on their natural relationships. Affinity diagraming is also known as affinity mapping, collaborative sorting, or snowballing. Regardless of what you call it, using this methodology during a Design Sprint enables teams to visualize and understand complex inputs such as How Might We brainstorm sessions or Rose, Bud, Thorn competitive analyses.
To get started, first gather your input data — usually cards or sticky notes and place the sticky notes or cards on a large whiteboard. It is at this point the team will have a workshop focused on analyzing the data in two ways:?
A Cluster is a group of related notes/stickies whereas a Theme is a group of Clusters.
Clustering
In order to determine the Clusters the Design Sprint Team’s facilitator will pull stickies/notes one-by-one and read them to the team. If a Cluster already exists that the note is a natural fit for, the facilitator will place the note in that Cluster. If the note doesn’t fit under any existing Cluster the facilitator will move it to the Misc/Other Cluster. After reviewing the other Cluster notes for patterns the facilitator will announce the names of the new Clusters if any and move the respective notes under the new Cluster.?
To practice this exercise let’s imagine you are the product manager that has completed a How Might We brainstorm session. The resulting stickies are below:
Looking at the above examples we can start to find natural patterns to group the How Might We statements into. For instance, I see three patterns; 1) Acquisition 2) Onboarding, and 3) Performance. I also see one outlier. I have grouped the examples below into the four identified Clusters:
Acquisition
Onboarding
Performance
Other
Theming
After creating Clusters and moving stickies/notes into them the Design Sprint Team’s Facilitator will stand by each Cluster, and summarize its findings. Afterwards the team should move Clusters into Themes. For instance, assume you are in a Design Sprint team that has created 5 Clusters;?
Looking at the above Clusters there are natural groupings that begin to emerge. For example, Simplifying User Experience, Improve Application Performance, and Optimize Onboarding could be grouped. Likewise Acquire New Users and Enter New Markets could be grouped. Therefore the two themes and their Clusters might be:
Growth
Usability
As you and the Design Sprint team embark on your Affinity Diagraming process there are few things to keep in mind. First and foremost Affinity Diagraming should be a highly interactive process. It is ok and encouraged to discuss Clusters/Themes and move their contents around. However, the process should not stall in debates. Facilitators should move them along to the next subject. It’s helpful to time box discussions and activities to encourage thoughtful collaboration and limit endless discourse. Most importantly TAKE PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK! Photos of Clusters, Themes and the group working on them will become invaluable artifacts to showcase to stakeholders. Additionally as time passes these artifacts will be used to refocus the team.
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