An affinity diagram is used to?

• A. Group ideas into themes
• B. Map customer journeys
• C. Define data models
• D. Measure performance

Answer: (A)

An affinity diagram focuses on organizing a large collection of ideas, comments, or data points by grouping items that share natural relationships. This helps teams surface common themes and overarching patterns without predefined categories, which is especially useful after brainstorming or user research when many ideas exist. By writing each idea on a note and sorting them into clusters based on similarity, teams can label each cluster with a theme, spot gaps, and prioritize areas for further work. It differs from mapping customer journeys, which traces the sequence of user interactions; defining data models, which creates structured representations of data; and measuring performance, which centers on quantitative metrics. The affinity approach is ideal for turning a messy collection of qualitative inputs into meaningful thematic groups that guide decisions and planning.