Affinity Diagram Maker

Themes built from individual observations

An affinity diagram groups qualitative notes by shared meaning. It is a way to examine patterns in research or brainstorming before deciding which themes deserve further investigation or action.

Use it when notes outgrow a linear list

Interview synthesis, workshops, and retrospectives often produce overlapping observations. Grouping them reveals common concerns while keeping the raw material available for review.

Preserve the evidence behind a theme

1. Keep notes atomic. Separate a comment containing two distinct observations.
2. Group before naming. Let the material suggest themes instead of forcing preset buckets.
3. Retain source labels. A theme should remain traceable to the notes beneath it.
4. Allow outliers. An unusual observation can matter even when it has no cluster.
5. Avoid equating frequency with importance. Repeated notes may reflect sampling or duplicates rather than priority.

Ask for clusters, then inspect them

MyMap can arrange your notes into labeled groups and revise those groups through conversation. The fixed example is a Business Model Canvas for a SaaS product, not an affinity diagram; it demonstrates sectioned canvas content rather than research-derived clusters.