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Simplifying the analysis of subjective data with the help of Affinity Diagrams
- Pedro Ferreira
- Jan 3, 2022
- 3 min read
How can one process Voice of Customer, complex/chaotic projects plans, problems root causes, ideas and other subjective items with simple but powerful tool.
Summary:
Examples illustrate how the Affinity Diagram, a straightforward tool based on a grouping by similarities, can be applied for the analysis of qualitative information;
In addition to traditional brainstorming, this approach helps one to process customer's needs, plan projects embedded in uncertainties, find root causes of problems and solve other challenges;
Several online sharing tools are listed to help us using such an approach in times of home office.
This inspirational thought from da Vinci is extremely beneficial and valid in many areas, including continuous improvement initiatives. Usually the most straightforward solutions are the most efficient ones. Digesting subjective data, such as the stated above, is definitely a big challenge. Affinity Diagrams might be an excellent approach to process these and other sets of qualitative data.
Affinity Diagrams are a grouping of items according to their natural relationships. It starts with a meeting where each member has a short time set (usually not more than 3 to 5 minutes) and a block of sticky notes where people can record these items in silence. Then, within a similar time range, the meeting members are asked to stick these ideas on a wall and group them, also in silence, according to how they feel it makes sense. Usually, these criteria are not pre-established, and the (re)grouping converges naturally.
The process is very simple, but it works very well in many cases, increasing team participation, since everybody tends to write something. On the other hand, at a traditional brainstorming, some members naturally speak more than the others or are just not so comfortable to express their thoughts. This approach often causes paradigm breaks and simplifies the decision-making process. Let's explore some examples of how to apply it to the cases mentioned above:
Process the Voice of the Customer - it is already complicated enough for us to understand the customer's needs in the cases in which they know what they need and convert this into something concrete. Figure out the challenge of prioritizing and processing feedback such as “cordial service”, “having an innovative experience”, “a product that doesn't give you a headache”, etc. Some approaches, such as the KJ Method (developed by Jiro Kawakita), use the Affinity Diagram to group these qualitative demands, name these groups with the “voices”, prioritize and later translate them into requirements through other tools. We can use this approach for direct digest responses from our customers (requirements' map) or what we perceive from their environment (image map) to capture needs that may not have been identified by the customer.
Example of Requirements KJ:
Example of Image KJ:
Planning complex and / or inovative projects - when we don't know where to start a project, either due to technology or challenge/goal achievement uncertainties, the Affinity Diagram can be a good start.In this case, the items are, the activities that we understand as mandatory at some point in the project, in order to achieve the objective. The titles of the groups are, in general, the milestones of the project plan.
Search for problems root cause - before addressing other tools such as the Ishikawa Diagram, the Cause and Effect Matrix, FMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, etc., we can apply this technique to ensure homogeneous participation of the team and to work around the “usual suspects”.
Ideation - the famous “brainwriting” basically follows the same principle as the previous examples. Writing individually at first, the team lists ideas for solving a given problem. The grouping by affinities generates “fronts” of similar solutions and eventual “lonely wolves”, the unique ideas that are often the most innovative.
In times of Home Office, people can apply this approach virtually by using several solutions available for online sharing. Here you can find a list of some:
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