context mapping
Context Mapping is a mechanism to organize information into the right contexts, so as to take more focused approach for further investigations and analysis.
During Empathy phase, we observe multiple pain-points observed by the users across their journey, in each Use case. Each of these pain points is converted into potential root causes (Problems) that could be resulting into or contributing towards that pain point. Context mapping helps in categorizing the user's pain point based on the area of work and functional stakeholders involved.
Affinty diagram (K-J method)
Affinity diagrams or clustering exercises are all about bundling and grouping information. It is a great method to help make sense of all information when we have a lot of mixed data, such as facts, ideas from researches, user opinions, user needs, and insights.
For each of the context, we cluster the problems (possible root causes) based on the similarity and then put a category name to each group. This helps in rephrasing these problems is a simpler way, as well as onboarding right stakeholder for further analysis. For all the problems within a category, all the data and information are consolidated together for clarity.