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An affinity diagram organizes a pile of unstructured ideas into groups by natural relationship: brainstorm first, cluster second, name the clusters last. This template shows a completed example, sticky notes on the benefits of remote-first companies sorted into Health, Team, Cost, and Culture stacks, so you can see the method before you run it. UX researchers and teams use it to synthesize interviews and make sense of big brainstorms.
Both organize ideas visually; they move in opposite directions. A mind map radiates from a known center: you have the concept, you're laying out its parts. An affinity diagram converges from the edges: you have a hundred fragments and no center, and grouping reveals one. That's why mind maps suit planning and note-taking, while affinity diagrams own research synthesis and post-brainstorm sense-making. If you could draw the structure before starting, you wanted a mind map.
An affinity diagram is a method for organizing many unstructured ideas, observations, or research notes into clusters based on their natural relationships. Jiro Kawakita, a Japanese anthropologist, developed it in the 1960s (it's also called the KJ method, after his initials), and it became one of the seven management and planning tools. Teams use it to find the themes hiding in a wall of sticky notes.
Affinity mapping is the activity of building an affinity diagram: writing one idea per note, grouping related notes into clusters, and naming the clusters afterward. In UX research it's the standard way to synthesize interviews; after five user conversations you'll have dozens of observations, and mapping them surfaces the patterns. The terms affinity mapping, affinity diagramming, and affinity clustering all describe the same exercise.
Direction. A mind map starts with structure: a central concept that branches outward into subtopics you already understand. An affinity diagram starts with chaos: a pile of notes whose structure you don't know yet, grouped until categories emerge. Use a mind map to lay out knowledge; use an affinity diagram to discover what your research or brainstorm is actually telling you.
Give everyone time to write notes first, one idea per sticky. Then sort in silence: people move notes next to related ones, and regrouping someone else's move is allowed. Talking starts only when movement stops. Name the clusters together, split anything bloated, then dot-vote what to act on. Sessions run 30 to 60 minutes for a sprint's worth of notes; research synthesis can take longer.
Two moments mainly. After research: user interviews, survey free-text, support tickets, anywhere you have many qualitative observations and no structure. And after a big brainstorm: once a session produces fifty ideas, affinity grouping is how they become four directions. If you already know the categories, skip it; sorting into predefined boxes is just filing, and you'll miss the theme you didn't expect.