How to create an affinity diagram

Before you start reading this article, I’d like you to stop. 

No, seriously. Just for a minute. At the end of this paragraph, stop reading, close your eyes, and think. About anything. Try to observe what’s happening inside your mind during the thought process. I’ll be waiting right here for you when you come back.

Are you back? Good. Nice to see you again. 

One thing you may have noticed during this exercise is that it is very, very difficult for our brains to focus on one topic at a time. Ideas don’t present themselves in a neat, logical order. They pop up and recede and swirl around our heads — sort of like a mental word cloud.

This constant churn of thoughts is not just perfectly normal, but the key to understanding. As our brain is running through thoughts, bouncing from place to place, we’ll often discover connections that seem to just magically appear amid the swirl. And it’s these connections that give rise to new ideas, new paths of thinking, new insights.

Affinity diagrams are a way of applying this common, everyday internal process to groups of ideas, or the thoughts of groups of people. It’s a method for organizing data or ideas to discover the underlying patterns that lead to insight. So now that your eyes are open, let’s dive in and get diagramming!

In this guide, you’ll:

• Learn what an affinity diagram is and how it differs from mind mapping
• Discover the origins and history of affinity diagrams in management practices
• Follow our practical 5-step guide to creating effective affinity diagrams
• Implement affinity diagramming best practices to maximize results
• Learn how to leverage digital tools like Mural to streamline your affinity mapping process

“Affinity clustering is a wonderful way to democratize discussions. Instead of circling around the validity of any single idea and debating the merits of it, affinity clustering treats each sticky note with equal weight, and the discussion becomes about how they fit together and what we are learning. Using affinity clustering allows for everyone’s voice to be heard, and each person can see their perspective in the final output.”- Jesse Smith, Sr. Learning Experience Designer, Mural

What is an affinity diagram?

An affinity diagram (also known as an affinity chart, affinity map, affinity cluster, or KJ method … read on to understand why) is a method for organizing large amounts of data, ideas, or insights into groups based on relationships. When grouping information, people often start by defining categories first, then figuring out where each piece of information belongs. Affinity diagrams reverse this process, creating the categories from the data itself. This forces the organizer to think deeply about the connections between pieces of information instead of trying to match your data to preconceived notions of where it belongs.

When we start with the data first and determine the categories later, we can discover connections not immediately obvious, helping us to not just group data, but understand what it’s saying. Thus, affinity diagramming isn’t just a method of organization, but a method of explanation. 

Related: Visual collaboration: What it is and how to get started

Origins and history of affinity diagrams

The history of affinity diagrams could make for a fascinating blog post in and of itself, but I’ll give you the tl;dr version just to set the context of how this method evolved to solve real-world problems. In the 1960s, a Japanese ethnographer named Jiro Kawakita was working in the Himalayan Mountains, attempting to understand the water supply and transportation challenges of Nepalese farmers. (As one does.) 

One day, he took all the data he had and spread it across his desk on individual notecards. Looking at this mass from above, he suddenly noticed a relationship between two pieces of data he hadn’t realized before. So he began grouping his information together based on similarities, gleaning insight from the patterns that were emerging. And on this day, affinity diagramming was born.

By the 1970s, affinity mapping became a part of the “seven fundamental Methods of Management,” a system for running organizations that powered Japan’s rise as a world leader in manufacturing and technology. A few decades after that, the method made its way into the West where it has become an indispensable tool in project management, user experience design, strategic planning, and numerous other business applications.

Affinity diagram vs mind mapping: Key differences

You may be familiar with mind maps, another popular organizational method. While they’re both ways of organizing information visually, each serves its own function and leads to different outcomes.

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Benefits of affinity diagrams

Affinity diagrams are a useful methodology for:

1. Organizing complex information: Affinity diagrams transform overwhelming amounts of data into manageable, meaningful groups, making complex problems more approachable and solvable.
2. Enhancing team collaboration: The collaborative nature of affinity mapping encourages active participation from all team members, fostering inclusivity and ensuring diverse perspectives are considered.
3. Revealing patterns and insights: By visually grouping related ideas, affinity maps help teams identify trends, connections, and insights that might otherwise remain hidden in siloed thinking.
4. Improving prioritization: Once information is organized into logical groups, teams can more easily identify high-impact areas and prioritize their efforts accordingly.
5. Reducing miscommunication: Visual representation of ideas creates a shared understanding among team members, minimizing misinterpretations and aligning perspectives.
6. Supporting strategic planning: The structured output of affinity diagrams provides a solid foundation for strategic initiatives, ensuring plans are built on comprehensive analysis.‍
7. Encouraging creativity: The process of creating affinity diagrams stimulates creative thinking by allowing unexpected connections to emerge between seemingly unrelated ideas.

How to do affinity mapping: A 5-step guide

Now that you know a little more about affinity diagrams, it’s time to try it for yourself. The process of affinity diagramming involves figuring out a question you want to answer or a problem to solve, writing all the data you can think of related to this inquiry on individual sticky notes, then grouping those sticky notes into related categories. However, there’s a little bit more you need to know to do it right. Read on to learn how to create an affinity diagram to help you uncover the insights in your data.

Step 1: Define the problem or question

Begin by clearly articulating the challenge or question your team needs to address. A well-defined focus ensures that your affinity mapping exercise will generate relevant insights. Affinity diagrams are particularly useful for:

• Customer feedback analysis: Organizing feedback from multiple channels, like surveys, support tickets, or social media, to identify recurring themes and prioritize improvements
• Product launch planning: Consolidating cross-functional inputs on launch requirements, risks, and opportunities to create a comprehensive roadmap
• UX research synthesis: Transforming user interview transcripts and observations into actionable design insights by identifying common pain points and needs
• Retrospectives: Gathering and understanding team reflections on what went well and what could be improved at the end of projects 

Step 2: Save time with ready-to-use affinity diagram templates and tools

One easy way to get started with affinity diagramming is with a visual collaboration platform like Mural. Our affinity clustering template walks you through the process, using Mural’s intuitive collaboration features to get you and your team up and running in no time, whether you’re working together in the office or remotely. 

You can also run your diagramming session the old-school way with post-it notes and a whiteboard. The advantage of using a digital collaboration tool is that all of your information is saved and easily shareable; however, if you’re working with a physical whiteboard, you can always record your session by taking a picture of your affinity chart. Try it both ways and see which works the best for your team; sometimes using physical media can help spur new ideas, especially when you and your team are together in one location.

Step 3: Run an affinity diagram brainstorming session to generate ideas and solutions

You know your inquiry, you have your affinity diagram tools ready to go…the next step is to start generating data. Have everyone on the team write down any information they can think of that will be relevant to your inquiry. Don’t limit yourselves; the more information you have, the more you have to work with. Keep the principles below in mind for effective affinity diagram brainstorming:

• Quantity over quality: Keep the ideas coming, and resist passing judgment in the moment. The more data, the better
• One idea per note: Make sure each sticky only contains one clear thought; this will make it easier when it’s time to start sorting
• Be specific and concrete: Avoid vague statements; specificity is important to unlocking insights
• Use participants' own words: It’s important to preserve authentic meaning; the conversations people have while doing the exercise can be just as important as categorizing
• Avoid pre-defining categories: We’ve already discussed this, but it’s a crucial thing to remember. Pre-defined categories only reinforce preconceived notions. Keep an open mind and let groupings emerge naturally

Step 4: Look for patterns or connections between ideas

Once all ideas are captured, it’s time to start clustering them together. Have each participant take a group of stickies that they didn’t write, then read each thought or data point out loud. This is why preserving participants’ own words is important — when reading the thoughts out loud, some explanation may be required, and this is a great way to start a dialogue. 

While reading and discussing, you should be deciding as a group which ideas are interrelated and placing these stickies together. Keep refining as you go through the stickies, until you feel confident that you have everything sorted into groups that make sense. Once you have groups that feel right, you can name your groups. Instead of using single-word categories, it’s helpful to use phrase or a sentence; for instance, instead of calling a category “user requests,” call it something like “user-requested UI improvements.” The more specific you can get, the more helpful the exercise will be.

If you’re using affinity diagram software, AI can also help during this process. Mural's AI clustering feature can provide an initial organization based on semantic relationships, which teams can then refine manually.

Related: 10 ways Mural AI enhances product innovation and speed to market

Step 5: Analyze grouped ideas to identify priorities

Once you’re confident in your groupings, it’s time to transform these insights into action. Get to next steps by:

1. Discussing each cluster to ensure shared understanding
2. Voting to identify priority areas
3. Creating action items connected to key insights
4. Assigning ownership and deadlines
5. Scheduling follow-up sessions

Your finalized affinity diagram serves as a visual reference that keeps everyone aligned on priorities and next steps, ensuring that the collaborative insights translate into concrete actions.

Affinity diagramming best practices

The following practices can help maximize the effectiveness of your affinity mapping exercises:

1. Define a clear objective: Ensure everyone understands the specific focus of the exercise and what you’re trying to learn
2. Involve diverse participants: Include different roles and perspectives to increase the likelihood of new insights
3. Enforce a "no criticism" rule: It can be hard to put your ideas out in front of others. Make sure everyone feels welcome to share their thoughts with an “any idea is a good idea” mentality
4. Use clear language: Encourage everyone to try to express their ideas in simple, clear language
5. Capture all ideas first: Avoid categorizing ideas during the brainstorming and clustering phase; once categories get locked in it can be hard to see information outside of those categories
6. Refine and prioritize: Keep refining your clusters throughout the exercise until you get to a place where everyone is comfortable, and make sure you end the exercise with clear, actionable steps

Turn your team's ideas into action using affinity diagramming on Mural

Digital collaboration tools like Mural have revolutionized affinity diagramming by making it accessible to teams regardless of their physical location. Mural's platform offers specific features that enhance the affinity mapping experience, including:

• An infinite canvas that expands to accommodate any number of ideas and clusters
• Ready-to-use affinity diagram templates that provide immediate structure
• Digital sticky notes in various colors for visual organization and categorization
• AI-powered clustering tools that suggest initial groupings based on semantic relationships
• Real-time collaboration enabling synchronous or asynchronous contributions
• Video and messaging integrations that facilitate discussion alongside visual organization
• Voting and prioritization features to democratically identify key focus areas
• Facilitation superpowers like timers, private mode, and summoning to keep sessions on track

With these capabilities, Mural transforms traditional affinity diagramming into a dynamic, efficient process that captures the collective intelligence of your team while making it easy to work together from anywhere in the world. And 91% of workers say visual communication has made them more efficient — find out why with Mural.

Ready to give it a try? Get started now with a free Mural account and see how easy it can be to run insightful, engaging affinity diagramming sessions with your team.