So the groups come from the stickies rather than from whoever explains first. Talking starts once the groups have settled, to name them and to argue about the stickies that moved back and forth.

How many themes should there be?

Five to ten. Fewer and the themes are too broad to act on; more and it is still a brainstorm. Merge groups of one or two into a neighbour or the parking lot. Ten groups of one sticky each means the notes were too vague to group.

What happens to the themes afterwards?

Each becomes a candidate for a project, a fishbone or a countermeasure. Sort them on an impact/effort matrix, or vote with dots, to choose the first one.

Affinity diagram or fishbone?

A fishbone starts from one problem and sorts causes into fixed categories. An affinity diagram starts from many observations and lets the categories emerge. Use affinity when the problem is not yet clear, and a fishbone once it is.

A facilitator who does not add stickies: they keep the silence, call time on the sort and push for sentence names. The team owns the themes.

Can it be done remotely?

Yes. On a shared board, everyone adds and moves stickies from their own screen at the same time, which suits the silent sort well.

Lean Studio board · Improvement & ideas

Affinity Diagram board

In one sentence

An affinity diagram is a method for turning a large set of brainstormed ideas or observations into a small number of named themes, by grouping the stickies by their natural relationship rather than by pre-set categories.

An affinity diagram turns a wall of brainstormed stickies into a handful of named themes. The team groups the stickies by what they have in common, in silence at first so the loudest voice does not decide, then names each group. It is the step between a brainstorm and a decision.

See it in action Start a 90-day pilot

When to use it

When to use the Affinity Diagram board

After a brainstorm, a survey or a round of gemba interviews that produced 50 or more notes.
When a problem is fuzzy and the team needs to see its shape before choosing a tool.
To sort customer complaints or audit findings into causes worth a project each.
Before an impact/effort matrix, so the matrix sorts themes rather than 80 single ideas.
When two teams see the same problem differently, to build one picture from both sets of stickies.

What is on the board

1
Unsorted area
Every idea on its own sticky, one thought per sticky.
2
Theme columns
Groups the team forms by moving stickies next to each other.
3
Theme headers
A name for each group, written last, as a full sentence if possible.
4
Parking lot
Stickies that fit nowhere; they are often the interesting ones.

Running it

How to run an Affinity Diagram session

1
Start with 50 or more stickies from a brainstorm, interviews or a survey, one thought per sticky, written so a stranger could read them. Five to eight people, typically 60 to 90 minutes.
2
Put everything up unsorted and read every sticky aloud once. No discussion.
3
Sort in silence: everyone moves stickies at the same time to sit next to the ones they relate to. A sticky that keeps moving between two groups gets duplicated.
4
Stop when the movement stops, usually after 10 to 15 minutes. Then talk: what does each group have in common?
5
Name each theme as a sentence, not a word: 'information reaches the floor late', not 'communication'. Write it as a header above the group.
6
Count the stickies per theme and keep a parking lot beside the board for the ones that fit nowhere.
7
Write the stickies as full sentences with a verb: 'pick lists are released Monday morning', not 'pick lists'. A two-word sticky can be grouped anywhere, which means nowhere.
8
Good output: five to ten themes with sentence names, a count under each, and agreement on which two or three to take to a matrix or a fishbone.

Worked example · sample data

Worked example

The sample board grouped nine stickies from a shift brainstorm into three themes and a parking lot. 'Information arrives late' collected pick lists released on Monday morning, drawing changes that never reach the floor, and schedule changes made by phone. 'Tools not where needed' collected one torque gun shared by two stations and the die cart parked across the aisle. 'Training gaps on nights' collected new starters trained only on days and no cover for the setter. The canteen closing before the night break went to the parking lot: real, but not this board's problem, so it went to the site manager separately. The team took the first theme to an impact/effort matrix, since three stickies pointed at one planning habit, and made the die cart a quick win the same week.

The board shown at the top of this page, read through. Invented data, not a customer.

Common mistakes

Sorting into categories you named before you started. Then it is a fishbone with the causes pre-decided.
Talking during the sort. The loudest person's groups win.
Themes named with one word. 'Communication' cannot be acted on; a sentence can.
Too few stickies. Affinity works on volume; with a dozen notes, just discuss them.
Throwing away the parking lot. The misfits are often the honest ones.
Merging groups too early to reach a tidy five. Let a small group stand if it is a real theme.

How it works in Lean Studio

1
Start from the Affinity Diagram template: an open area for the brainstorm and empty theme columns beside it.
2
Everyone adds stickies at the same time, then moves them into groups without talking; a sticky that keeps moving gets duplicated.
3
Name each theme with a text header and count its stickies, then take the themes to an impact/effort matrix.
4
Save the finished board to My templates so the next team starts from your version.

Lean Studio boards are drawn with stickies, text, shapes (rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, diamond), arrows and charts, and any board can carry the 15 data widgets, from a scorecard to a kanban. See all widgets and boards.

Also in LeanSuite

Where it goes next in LeanSuite

LeanSuite's Idea Management turns frontline suggestions into reviewed, approved and tracked improvements.

Themes that become projects go into Kaizen & Projects with an owner, a method such as A3 or PDCA, and tracked savings. Kaizen & Projects
When the stickies were employee suggestions, Idea Management groups similar ideas with Lean AI and shows how alike they are, so related suggestions are reviewed together. Idea Management
A theme about skills or cover on a shift is a gap the skills matrix shows person by person, with training assigned from the gap view. Competency Management

See Idea Management

Open this board in LeanSuite

Affinity Diagram is one of the 30 ready-made boards in Lean Studio, LeanSuite's whiteboard. Try the interactive demo in your browser with sample data, or pilot LeanSuite on your own lines for 90 days, with the setup done by our team.

See it in action Start a 90-day pilot

What Lean Studio is

Related boards and templates

In the lean glossary

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