Creating “primary” groupings and names (optional …

1、Affinitization GuideIn this step, your goal is to reduce the list of detailed needs down from the 70-130 winnowed phrases to 20-30 broader need categories that best exemplify the detailed needs. You will sort the phrases, create an “Affinity diagram” (also called the “KJ Method,” which was developed

2、 by the ethnologist, Jiro Kawakita) that illustrates the hierarchy of needs, and validate it with customers. This part is structured around the following steps:A. Sort the phrasesB. Create the Affinity DiagramC. Validate with customersAlthough the sorting session and creation of the Affinity Diagram

3、 can take as little as a few hours, you should allow 1-2 weeks for scheduling as well as for the validation calls with customers.A. Sort the phrasesThe goal for this step is to reduce the winnowed set of detailed needs from the ANALYZE phase down from 70-130 needs statements to 20-30 broader need ca

4、tegories that best exemplify the detailed needs.Typically, a small group meets to (1) sort the needs into categories on Post-It notes and (2) identify an exemplar need or a concept that “best captures” the overarching need for each category. This is best done by a group of 4-6 people who were part o

5、f the team that conducted the customer interviews. Ideally, you would also involve customers at this stage. Enlisting customers to perform the initial sorting can be beneficial and is typically easy to do in consumer industries. However, it can be difficult to achieve this in B2B environments. If yo

6、u are able to involve customers in this phase, great. If not, you can - and should - integrate customer input later in the process by having your team perform the initial sort, create the Affinity Diagram, and then ask customers to react to it. The next section provides guidance for how to facilitat

7、e a sorting session, whether with customers or with an internal team. We recommend that only the team members that conducted a good portion of the interviews participate in creating the affinitization diagram that you will send to clients. Extended team members, who are less involved, or those with

8、little or no involvement, are not appropriate staff for this exercise. Its important to remain relatively consistent to what you heard in the interviews. Its important to remember that the purpose of the Affinitization phase is to get to a group of 20-30 “secondary needs”, which as you may remember,

9、 are part of the Needs Hierarchy:Needs Hierarchyo Strategic/Primary: Overarching set of customer needs used for defining strategic initiatives and for communicating VOC (usually about 4-8)o Tactical/Secondary: Customer-defined categories of needs used to focus on tactical initiatives related to prod

10、uct, service, and market planning (usually about 20-30)o Detailed/Tertiary: Detailed customer needs (in their own language) that provide definition to the secondary groupings (usually about 70-130)Facilitating a Sorting SessionModerating affinitization groups is not the same as conducting a one-on-o

11、ne interview or a typical focus group. The moderator needs energy to keep the group engaged and confidence to tactfully redirect or sometimes shut off participants that might otherwise dominate or complicate the proceedings. The moderator needs to keep the group on task and prompt ideas for sorting.

12、To prepare for a sorting session:TIP: Use the MailMerge feature of Microsoft Word to print cards from your Excel database of needs.Since it can be difficult to print on thick cardstock, you may prefer to print your needs on sheets of clear labels, and then affix the labels to index cards. Plan at le

13、ast two hours for the session. This may seem like too much time, but a good session has considerable debate and may take a while. Print the 70-130 winnowed needs on an index card (one need per card). Bring these cards to the meeting The group will sort these needs into categories during the groups I

14、f possible, have participants read the list of needs prior to the session Be sure you have large tables/workspace to allow for the card sorting; or use Post-It notes instead of index cards if you will be using wall space insteadStep 1: Sorting (individually and group) Divide card deck among particip

15、ants Read and tape one card on the board to provide an example for the process Have assistant find a card that goes with the one on the board Ask group for any other cards they have that go with this pile Start a new pile if necessary Get a participant volunteer to make a pile of his/her own and ask

16、 for group contribution Continue with this participant with other participants and cards As they seem to start slowing down (about the half-way point), facilitator should ask participants to write down a label or main idea for each pile on a Post-It noteStep 2: Sorting (as a group) Starting at one o

17、f the piles (white pages), encourage participants to share what they think is the main idea or label for the pile The moderator should read the cards found in that grouping to help with the process Participants should be encouraged to move cards they feel are in the wrong grouping Discussion of disa

18、greements should be encouraged The moderator should help the participants come to agreement on the label, as well as the movement of cards that dont belong The assistant moderator should capture the main idea or label the participants came up with on a blank Post-It (These main ideas are frequently

19、a few word phrase, or even just one word) Place the Post-It label above the need statement Continue this process around the room with each of the piles It is likely there will be individual needs that participants do not know where to put; put these “orphan” needs aside and come back to them they wi

20、ll just slow down the process at this point Second Round, Group Sorting After taking a short break (if needed), bring the participants back together to revisit any groupings that were especially large (10 or more cards) or any groupings that seemed particularly problematic Re-shuffle and distribute

21、the cards if necessary We want as much detail as possible; if there are very large groupings, encourage the group to split large groupings into smaller sub-categories It is okay to have a grouping with just one card if participants feel that nothing else goes with it Make sure the “orphan” needs fin

22、d groupings, or if there are 1 or 2 participants cannot place, it is okay to leave them aside Go around the room again to finalize groupings and labels There should be anywhere from 20-30 final groupingsFinal Naming of Affinity Groups: Writing the Secondary Needs StatementsOnce you have created the

23、20 30 categories of needs for affinity groups, you should write a need that encompasses the group. This is more than just a title. This is an actual need that captures all of the various points in the detailed needs that comprise the category. As a reminder, the detailed needs are the ones that came

24、 out of the ANALYZE phase. Youll typically have 70-130 or so of these. Youll put them into affinity groups, most often with 20-30 of these. Below we present a couple of examples from the Movie Theater industry.Affinity Group Example 1Affinity Group Example 2Often, the process of writing a need that

25、encapsulates and affinity group suggests that you might want to consider breaking the group into two or more additional groups. Although you should have 20 - 30 needs as a target, its important that needs go together in ways that make sense.One trick that often works is to identify a need within the

26、 group that represents the primary need, or the one that most encapsulates most of what the need in this group must convey. We identify this need and then try to ensure that other needs build upon it. During this process, the assistant moderator should be organizing the final piles and editing the P

27、ost-It notes The assistant moderator should create two Post-Its for each final label one goes above the grouping it describes, the second should be put on a tableCreating “primary” groupings and names (optional if time) After all of the groupings have been finalized and named, make sure there is a d

28、uplicate of the name on a Post-It note on the table in the middle of the room Ask the participants to create one more level of grouping they should sort the 20-30 “secondary” needs into 4-8 piles that belong together Participants then provide a name for each of these “primary” groupings The assistan

29、t moderator should capture these names on a Post-It noteClosing the Session Thank participants for their time Ask for any feedback, comments on the processIf multiple groups are conducted, merge the groups based on common piles and judgment.B. Create the Affinity DiagramThe affinity diagram is the d

30、ocument that illustrates the hierarchy of needs you just developed: Primary, Secondary and Detailed. The “Secondary” needs are what you will take forward to the next phase. You can make an affinity diagram in Microsoft PowerPoint, Visio, or a more advanced graphics package. Below is an example of an

31、 Affinity Diagram. Create whatever diagram works best for you, but be sure you maintain the hierarchy of needs, so that the customers with whom you validate the diagram can react meaningfully to it. C. Validate with CustomersOnce you have created the Affinity Diagram, you should next validate your f

32、indings with customers to ensure the customer voice is maintained. This validation best takes place with 4-6 customers who participated in the interviews. Typically, a 30-minute phone conversation during which you ask for feedback on the affinity diagram is sufficient. To prepare for this part of th

33、e process, during the RECRUIT phase, when you are looking for people to participate in the In-Depth Interviews, ask participants that you think seem engaged and articulate if theyd be willing to participate in an additional phase of research. This would involve less of their time. Use the following as a script, and adjust as necessary: “This phase of the research results in lots of needs,