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 means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.