Affinity Map
Affinity Map is a relationship mapping exercise for divergent ideation: it helps participants open up more possible ideas before choosing a direction.
How to run it
- Duration of Play: Depends on the number of players, but a maximum of 1.5 hours
- On a sheet of flip-chart paper, write a question the players will respond to along with a visual that complements it. Conduct this game only when you have a question for the players that you know will generate at least 20 pieces of information to sort.
- Collect the ideas from the group and post them on a flat working surface visible to everyone. It should end up resembling the following figure.
- Fun, optional activity: Run through the Affinity Diagram game once, complete with categorizations. Then ask the group to reshuffle the sticky
- notes and recombine the ideas based on affinities they didn’t notice in the first round.
- . On a sheet of flip-chart paper, write a question the players will respond to along with a visual that complements it. Conduct this game only when you have a question for the players that you know will generate at least 20 pieces of information to sort.
- . Collect the ideas from the group and post them on a flat working surface visible to everyone. It should end up resembling the following figure.
- Brainstorming works to get a high quantity of information on the table.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Duration of Play: Depends on the number of players, but a maximum of 1.5 hours
On a sheet of flip-chart paper, write a question the players will respond to along with a visual that complements it. Conduct this game only when you have a question for the players that you know will generate at least 20 pieces of information to sort.
Collect the ideas from the group and post them on a flat working surface visible to everyone. It should end up resembling the following figure.
Fun, optional activity: Run through the Affinity Diagram game once, complete with categorizations. Then ask the group to reshuffle the sticky
. On a sheet of flip-chart paper, write a question the players will respond to along with a visual that complements it. Conduct this game only when you have a question for the players that you know will generate at least 20 pieces of information to sort.
. Collect the ideas from the group and post them on a flat working surface visible to everyone. It should end up resembling the following figure.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Affinity Map. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Duration of Play: Depends on the number of players, but a maximum of 1.5 hours; On a sheet of flip-chart paper, write a question the players will respond to along with a visual that complements it. Conduct this game only when you have a question for the players that you know will generate at least 20 pieces of information to sort.; Collect the ideas from the group and post them on a flat working surface visible to everyone. It should end up resembling the following figure.; Fun, optional activity: Run through the Affinity Diagram game once, complete with categorizations. Then ask the group to reshuffle the sticky. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Gamestorming; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Gamestorming, SessionLab.)
- What that does and does not claim: we track where an exercise has been seen in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, how popular it is, or that it works. See methodology and trust boundary.
- Corrections welcome: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, tell us.