How to use the Affinity map template

Start a board from it
Use this template opens a new Freero board with the Affinity map template on it (sign up free first). On a board you already have, open Templates in the toolbar and search for “Affinity map”.
Follow the instruction on the board
“Move notes from the pile into groups that feel alike, without naming them first. Name each group last, then write what it means.”
Fill in each part
- Raw notes One observation per sticky, from any interview.
- Sharing outside the board
- Insight People finish their work somewhere else. Export quality decides whether they come back.
- First steps feel busy
- Insight A calmer first board matters more than a better tutorial.
- Teams, not individuals
- Insight Adoption starts in a meeting room, so the first session must work for a group.
Bring your team and your agents
Invite people to the board or share a link, and work on it together live. The timer is in the top bar, private mode and voting in the board menu, and Claude or ChatGPT can join through Freero’s MCP server.

Work on it with an AI agent

Connect an assistant once and it works on the board with you, with your permissions: by default it reads and proposes, and people decide.

You ask: “Fill in the Affinity map board from these notes.”
What happens It reads the board, then proposes sticky notes for it. Nothing changes until someone on the board accepts them.
You ask: “Group what we wrote into themes and list the actions.”
What happens It proposes clusters with a title each and task cards for the actions, labelled with its name and yours.

Brainstorming: Ideas on sticky notes, written privately against a timer, clustered and dot-voted down to the few worth trying.

Customer journey
Stages across, lanes for doing, thinking, feeling, pain points and opportunities.
User interview notes
Interview guide, color-coded notes and the key takeaways from one conversation.
Research plan
Plan a study before booking anyone: the decision it informs, the questions, method, participants, timeline and how you’ll share it.
Insight synthesis
Turn research notes into insights: what you observed, what it means, and what the team should do about it.
Diary study plan
Plan a study where participants record their experiences over days or weeks: recruitment, prompts, check-ins and analysis.
Recruitment screener
Screen research participants with a few questions that let the right people in and keep the wrong ones out.