Affinity Diagram Template
Organize and cluster ideas and data in order to effectively develop solutions.
About the Affinity Diagram template
The affinity diagram template can help you organize and consolidate ideas from your brainstorming sessions. An affinity diagram is a tool that can lead to more innovative and better solutions when working through complex problems. But it’s not just ideal for brainstorms — this is a great template to use when you need to reach consensus or analyze data such as survey results.
What is an affinity diagram?
An affinity diagram is a visual brainstorming tool that allows teams to organize ideas according to their natural relationships. We’ve all participated in brainstorming sessions that seemed to go nowhere, and with so many people sharing a large number of ideas and perspectives, it can be difficult to distill these conversations into a coherent takeaway. This is where an affinity diagram comes in handy.
Benefits of using an affinity diagram template
You can use an affinity diagram to generate, organize, and consolidate information that comes out of a brainstorming session. Whether you’re building a product, working through a complex problem, establishing a process, or piecing apart an issue, an affinity diagram is a useful and simple framework.
Incorporate everyone’s perspective
An affinity diagram gives each team member the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas about the topic. By collecting everyone’s brainstorming ideas, an affinity diagram functions as a visual representation of a brainstorm that everyone can add to.
Find connections between ideas
Affinity diagrams are also a great way to discover novel connections between various components of a project. Synthesizing ideas into a simple visual framework allows teams to develop new solutions that they might otherwise miss.
Organize team thoughts and ideas
Finally, an affinity diagram template is a valuable tool of an organization that divides a project into various discrete components and allows you to dive deeper into each individual component. Organizing thoughts in this way can help you break up tasks and delegate responsibility.
When to use an affinity diagram template
Teams and organizations use affinity diagrams in a variety of situations. When your brainstorming session feels like it’s devolving and there are too many ideas to capture, or when the issues are too large and complex to grasp, you can use an affinity diagram to cut through the chaos.
But it’s not only useful during chaotic meetings; you can also use an affinity diagram whenever a consensus is needed, when analyzing data such as survey results when grouping ideas into themes, or when organizing datasets.
Our guide on mind mapping vs affinity diagrams can provide an additional perspective for when you need decide on the right tool for your team's needs.
How to use an affinity diagram template
Making an affinity diagram with your team is easy. Get started by selecting this affinity diagram template, then go through the following steps:
Step 1: Ideation
The first step of the process is to start recording the ideas that you’d like to sort into categories. Get everyone in the team involved and ask them to put forward a few ideas.
Step 2: Diagramming
Next, examine the ideas and try to find related concepts. Then, discuss with the group and start to tentatively draw connections between ideas. Invite team members to add sticky notes sharing their perspectives. When you notice related concepts, group them together. Repeat this step until you’ve grouped all the concepts.
Step 3: Grouping
Repeat step 2 until you’ve grouped all the concepts. It’s okay if there are concepts that seem to defy a grouping. You can return to those later.
Step 4: Team discussion
Discuss with your team and make sure everyone is on the same page. Do you agree with the groups? How should you label them? Do you need to make any changes?
Step 5: Synthesize ideas
Finally, combine these groups into “supergroups”, to synthesize ideas into a more cohesive whole. The completed affinity diagram can be used to enhance future project management and inform decision-making.
What is the purpose of an affinity diagram?
The purpose of an affinity diagram is to generate ideas and organize them in a manner that draws out the various connections and relationships between different ideas. Affinity diagrams are visual brainstorm tools, but with a focus more on the connections between ideas.
When are affinity diagrams used?
Affinity diagrams are used by businesses and organizations to analyze data, generate ideas, and organize projects or analyses. Any time you want to more clearly organize data or ideas to generate some useful conclusions, an affinity diagram can be used.
How do you use affinity diagrams?
You use the affinity diagram template after a brainstorming session or ideation. Afterward, group the ideas, concepts, and data gathered into clusters and see the connection between them. The affinity diagram template is done when you managed to synthesize your ideas up to the point you can inform decision-makers and identify solutions to the proposed problem.
Get started with this template right now.
Cynefin Framework Template
Works best for:
Leadership, Decision Making, Prioritization
Companies face a range of complex problems. At times, these problems leave the decision makers unsure where to even begin or what questions to ask. The Cynefin Framework, developed by Dave Snowden at IBM in 1999, can help you navigate those problems and find the appropriate response. Many organizations use this powerful, flexible framework to aid them during product development, marketing plans, and organizational strategy, or when faced with a crisis. This template is also ideal for training new hires on how to react to such an event.
Customer Journey Mapping Template Pack
Works best for:
Mapping, User Experience, Workshops
A customer journey map (CJM) is a visual representation of your customer’s experience. It allows you to capture the path that a customer follows when they buy a product, sign up for a service, or otherwise interact with your site. Most maps include a specific persona, outlines their customer experience from beginning to end, and captures the potential emotional highs and lows of interacting with the product or service. Use this template to easily create customer journey maps for projects of all kinds.
SAFe Program Board
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Diagrams, Agile Workflows
Many organizations use the Agile model, but even companies that don’t rigorously adhere to all Agile standards have adopted Agile tools and methods like Program Increment (PI) Planning. Even if you’re not participating in a formal PI session, a program board can be a great way to establish communication across teams and stakeholders, align development objectives with business goals, clarify dependencies, and foster cross-functional collaboration. The board provides much-needed structure to planning sessions, yet is adaptable enough to accommodate brainstorming and alignment meetings.
Kubernetes Architecture Diagram Template
Works best for:
Software Development, Diagrams
Use the Kubernetes Architecture Diagram template to manage your containerized applications better and bring your apps’ deployment, management, and scalability to the next level. This template helps you lower the downtime in production and allows you to have a more agile app production. Improve the deployment of your apps by visualizing every step of the process with the Kubernetes Architecture template. Try it out, and see if it works for you and your team.
Kubernetes Application Template
Works best for:
Software Development, Diagrams
Use the Kubernetes Application template to manage enterprise-ready containerized applications better. You can now get your team more agile when dealing with portability, licensing, and consolidated billing. The Kubernetes Application template allows you to run deployments anywhere, facilitating the management of your applications. Try it out and see if it’s the best fit for you and your team.
Kano Model Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Product Management, Prioritization
When it comes down to it, a product’s success is determined by the features it offers and the satisfaction it gives to customers. So which features matter most? The Kano model will help you decide. It’s a simple, powerful method for helping you prioritize all your features — by comparing how much satisfaction a feature will deliver to what it will cost to implement. This template lets you easily create a standard Kano model, with two axes (satisfaction and functionality) creating a quadrant with four values: attractive, performance, indifferent, and must-be.