Affinity Diagram
What is an affinity diagram?
An affinity diagram is used to organize information into like groups/categories to identify common themes and patterns. The creation of affinity diagrams allows the team to quickly identify trends in the data to facilitate creating accurate business and user requirements.
How to create an affinity diagram:
Start by picking out key phrases, words, and other useful parts of the interview and then organize them into like groups by writing them on sticky notes. If you are part of a remote team, you could use a free online tool like Trello.
After the initial sticky note session is complete, organize the results into a report that can be shared. This can be done in Excel or Trello.
Investment
Once an interview is complete, documenting the key responses is quick and easy.
Validity
Affinity diagrams can be somewhat subjective, as the creator makes determinations about what was important and how these items are grouped.
Expertise
Creating an affinity diagram requires no special tools or methods and can be done by anyone on the team with access to recordings of the interviews.