DEFINE

Affinity Clustering

Bring order to chaos.
Affinity Clustering is a fast, visual technique to organize scattered data (ideas, insights, or problems) into groups that reveal patterns. It turns a wall of sticky notes (or digital equivalents) into clear themes that everyone can see and agree on.

Get Started

WHY USE THIS TOOL?

Make patterns visible through shared logic.

It helps teams uncover hidden connections, prioritize what matters, and build a shared understanding of complex input. Whether from user research, brainstorming, or feedback, clustering transforms noise into clarity.

what you should know

Start With: Raw data, findings, or ideas (notes, quotes, brainstorm outputs)

End With: Clear clusters labeled by theme

Time Needed: 15–30 minutes

Difficulty: ⭐ ☆☆☆☆ (1 out of 5 – simple, fast, and collaborative)

A quickguide  to start

1.  Choose a focus. What question or set of data are you making sense of?
2.  Collect inputs. Bring together existing notes, quotes, ideas, or findings.
3. Write one per card. Put each insight or idea on a sticky note (physical or digital).
4. Sort as a group. Place similar notes near each other.
5. Label clusters. Give each group a short theme or title.
6. Prioritize clusters. Rank them by importance, urgency or opportunity.

helpful tips

  • Listen to the group’s discussion, insights often come from how people justify their groupings. 
  • Allow subgroups if a cluster is too big, but don’t over-engineer. 
  • Don’t ignore the outliers, unique notes may point to overlooked needs or breakthrough ideas.

RACU meets AI

Affinity Clustering 

How Can AI Make RACU Easier ? 

AI can be your creative partner and research assistant, ready to help you move faster and think deeper at every step of the RACU process.

For each RACU tool, we’ll share a ready-to-use AI prompt. Just copy the prompt into your favorite AI tool (like ChatGPT or Copilot) and it will guide you through the method step by step.

No need to fill out a blank form, the prompt starts the conversation and adapts to your answers in real time.

PROMPT – COPILOT, CHAT GPT

Role & Goal
You are my assistant helping me run an Affinity Clustering exercise.
Goal: Organize my raw input (quotes, notes, survey answers, or ideas) into meaningful clusters with clear labels, while leaving space for me to refine and add human judgment.

Instructions

  1. I’ll paste in a list of notes, quotes, or ideas.
  2. You will:
    • Group related items into clusters.
    • Propose short, clear labels (like headlines).
    • Highlight any outliers that don’t fit but may still be valuable.
    • Suggest possible hidden connections across clusters.
    • Summarize the top 3–5 emerging themes.
  3. Always check back with me before finalizing clusters.
  4. Keep the output simple, visual, and scannable (bullets, bold for labels).

Format your response like this:

  • Cluster 1 – [Label]
    • Item A
    • Item B
  • Cluster 2 – [Label]
    • Item C
    • Item D
  • Outliers
    • Item X → Why it might matter
  • Hidden Connections
    • e.g., Cluster 1 and Cluster 3 both deal with “trust” issues.
  • Summary
    • Theme 1: …
    • Theme 2: …
    • Theme 3: …

First question to ask me:
👉 “What data set (notes, quotes, or brainstorm ideas) would you like me to cluster?”

Copilot

Chat GPT