Background:
Ever noticed why there are whiteboards or strawboards at work places? Over the past decade, there has been a rising trend in the demand of whiteboards and strawboards by companies across the world. You find them everywhere irrespective of the type of job a person is doing or the role he is playing in his company. These boards help people to write down ideas and work on them as and when it is convenient for them. Often innovating or problem solving are not easy tasks. Such tasks require a holistic approach and multi-dimensional analysis which involves playing with a lot of ideas and broad themes.
Affinity Diagrams:
Affinity Diagrams are pictorial business tools that help a person to identify ideas (for innovation) or issues (for problem solving) and organize them. There is no harm in having a long list of ideas (for innovating) or a list of causes to a problem. Once the list is complete, the issue of organizing the ideas into similar categories is dealt with. Finally, the person tries to understand if there is any ‘affinity’ or relationship between all or some of the causes and looks for new ideas and solutions. This process is cyclic and not linear. It may not be possible for a person to come up with a solution or an idea for days. It may not be possible to do this alone and sometimes, it is good to work with teams and have brainstorming sessions as well.
Case Study:
Let us apply using Affinity Diagrams to understand why people are happy with the way Amazon (the online e-commerce portal) operates and identify areas of improvement.
People may be happy with Amazon due to the following reasons:
1. Convenience of shopping online
2. A vast product portfolio offering competitive prices
3. Easy billing and payment methods
4. Reliable delivery
5. Reliable vendors
6. Prompt order status via email alerts
7. Uninterrupted web browsing experience with non-intrusive advertisements
8. Customization of e-marketplace, creation of wish lists, etc
9. Reliable problem-solving and a great customer support system
10. In some states, saving taxes may be a priority
11. Ability to write reviews, rate products and have a community in the e-marketplace
It is to be remembered that to deal with competition, Amazon has to deal with the same set of issues as stated above to understand the following issues:
1. Why a majority of people is shopping elsewhere online?
2. How is the web traffic being driven to Amazon?
3. What are the causes for poor satisfaction of the consumers?
4. What can be done to overcome these problems?
This stage involves clustering of various issues under sub-heads.
Let us take a look at two situations:
If there is a delivery problem, identify what is delaying order processing, what are the errors in order processing, are the people processing the orders well-trained, are the people processing the orders happy with their jobs, well paid and productive, are the items stocked properly, is there a scenario where the items are not in stock and the website shows ‘in stock’, is it possible that the carrier is no longer reliable (USPS, FedEx, etc).
If there is a web browsing problem, identify how a consumer browses on the website, what tools he uses to optimize his results, is he distracted by advertisements and eventually buying elsewhere, is he able to find what he is looking for, are the prices of the products properly displayed, is he able to proceed to checkout easily, is he able to follow payment procedures properly, does he make wish lists, add items to his watch list etc.
Conclusion: These are only a few examples, but the idea is clear. Once ideas or issues have been identified , the ‘affinity’ between various causes and various effects and ‘cause and effects’ has to mapped so that problem solving can be easier and new ideas can be proposed. Affinity Diagrams may be drawn by using white board pens drawing rectangular boxes and writing text in them or with note slips which can stick on the board and can be used to place anywhere. Affinity Diagrams are simple to make, easy to understand and a good tool to process large amounts of information and ideas which would otherwise be just floating in one’s mind!
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