What is the Affinity Diagram?
Using the Affinity Diagrams helps to:
- identify missing information about problems and their causes
- define complex problems, issues, and situations
- identify common themes
To complete an Affinity Diagram, a team should:
- Determine the problem to be discussed.
- Brainstorm all of the possible ideas, writing each on index cards or self-sticking notes.
- Group the causes together with those sharing a common theme.
- Create a header card or self-sticking note to summarize each set.
Assume that a Customer Service team was grappling with the following issue:
• poor customer perceptions of product technical support
After much deliberation, the Customer Service team brainstormed the following possible causes:
- technical support is not up-to-date on new developments
- the telephone system is insufficient for the demand
- technical support staff show their frustration to the customers
- technical support stall have not been properly trained in communication skills
- technical support personnel view the Marketing department as promising more than it can deliver
- the product has so many glitches
- the reference guide is hard to use
- customers call and blame technical support personnel for customer service issues
- technical support personnel arc not rewarded based on customer satisfaction
- no internet-based technical support available
- once technical support personnel start to become effective, they leave
- customer expectations continually change
