Affinity Maps

Affinity Mapping is a simple brainstorming tool that helps to generate many ideas for your question of focus, and also helps the group to begin to process and look for patterns in ideas generated. Affinity mapping is an effective tool to visually present:

• The range of ideas present in the group; and
• Commonality of ideas generated.

This tool is an excellent follow-on to the Starbursting Tool (see related tools) to begin to brainstorm answers to the questions generated!

Facilitation Process:

1. Posting the Question: Start by writing the question your group will brainstorm ideas for on a large piece of chart paper and post on the wall where everyone can see it.
2. Individual Brainstorming [~10 minutes]: Ask members of your group to generate their ideas for the question of focus on sticky notes or index cards. Encourage your group to record 1 idea per card. Note: If you are concerned about generating too many ideas, you can limit the number of sticky notes/index cards, or reduce the time allotted for individual brainstorming.
3. Sharing & Posting [~20 minutes]: Ask for an assistant from the group to help post ideas to the wall. Invite each group member to read out all their sticky notes ideas verbatim, letting the group know there will be plenty of time for discussion during the sorting phase. Hand the sticky notes to the assistant to post on the wall, and move to the next person. Encourage people to read out their ideas even if they have been previously added to the wall.
4. Sorting [~30 minutes]: With the support of the group, ask members to begin to sort similar cards together. As a starting point, invite group members to look for pairs of ideas. Once 5-6 pairs are generated, begin to sort the rest of the cards. If group members are unsure where certain cards go, create a parking lot to keep track of those ideas.
5. Creating Categories [10+ minutes]: Once all the cards are sorted, ask the group to create category labels for the different groupings of cards. If there are a few ideas for naming the category, write them all down. These areas of disagreement may point to where additional conversation is needed.