Reframing Your Interview Story With Affinity Diagramming

Click here to see the Miro board companion to this post, where I show my proposed affinity diagramming method at a glance.

For most people, interviewing is not a frequently used skill. If we're in a season of interviewing, we're usually in a unique sort of transitional period where we are not quite over the past and not quite in the present, which is an unusual time to speak to what we look like when we're at our peak.

In Human Physiology (1835), Dr. John Elliotson wrote about a man who could only remember the last time he drank when he drank again, which very well may describe me when you catch me in an interviewing season:

"On one occasion, being drunk, he had lost a parcel of some value, and in his sober moments could give no account of it. Next time he was intoxicated, he recollected that he had left the parcel at a certain house, and there being no address on it, it had remained there safely, and was got on his calling for it." This man must have had two souls, one for his sober state, and one for him when drunk.

Preparing for interviews often means falling back into the same scripts and stories we told ourselves the last time we were interviewing, whether we want to or not. It's hard to be adaptable when we're subconsciously locked into what worked last time.

To help you with breaking out of your own scripts, I want to walk you through a brainstorming method my partner, Jack, and I stumbled upon while preparing for one of his recent interviews.

What started as unremarkable interview prep soon became a joint affinity diagramming session where we came out with key points that are both true to his story and directly relevant to the job he was applying for.

Our office door at the end of our interview prep session, where we inadvertently designed the method I describe in this post.

Should I do this with someone else like you did, or can I do this on my own?

It's completely up to you! Asking someone to be your moderator for the first 1-2 job descriptions you try gives space for them to see patterns in your own stories that you may not see yourself, but this method is whatever you make of it.

Here's how Jack and I went about it: I highlighted the script and came up with the highlight sticky notes; I presented one sticky note at a time, and Jack free-associated experiences, stories, and ideas while I furiously scribbled them down; and then I presented him with what I saw as his key points.

While we did this as a team activity, you can certainly do it on your own as well. You could even use the Miro board as a template and do your diagramming there: whatever floats your boat.

Let's get started!

Step 1: Print the job posting.

I prefer to print the job description and use physical sticky notes to go through this process, but you can do it digitally if you prefer.

I'll be using this sample job description here, which is a de-identified version of a real job my partner interviewed for.

Sample job description.

Step 2: Highlight skills and responsibilities in the job description.

Highlight anything that gives you insight into the job's responsibilities, how it fits into the organization, and anyone that you may be working with or reporting to.

Note: we didn't highlight anything in the "Skills for Success" section simply because we didn't see anything that stood out to us that wasn't already covered. Choosing your highlights is more art than science, so highlight as you see fit.

Step 3: Write your highlights on sticky notes.

Transfer each of those highlights into its own sticky note. Put them on the wall or your digital canvas.

Aim for one idea per sticky note so they are as atomic as possible. One skill, responsibility, or insightful phrase = one sticky note.

Step 4: Brainstorm any and all supporting evidence.

Now the fun part: brainstorming.

Let's say one of the highlights of the job description is "Experience working effectively in multidisciplinary teams."

What are some of your experiences, skills, or outcomes that address this skill? Does the word "multidisciplinary" bring anything to mind to you? Have you read anything about teamwork recently? Write it all down.

Maybe you were a resident assistant in college and the other RAs were from different majors. Write that down.

Maybe you co-authored a paper with someone whose field is different (or even just slightly different) from yours. Write that down.

You got something done in a group project where everyone (or even just a few people) brought different perspectives to the project. Write that down.

And so on. Don't filter yourself or leave anything out.

Some sample brainstorming. Go one sticky note at a time. You might be surprised at what you remember!

Step 5: Identify the emergent themes.

Congrats: you now have a jumble of notes! Time to get some emergent patterns.

This step requires some more intuition than the other steps because it requires qualitatively looking at your data and getting the emergent themes. With my partner, we found that it was easier for me to do this part since I was more easily able to identify the patterns that floated to the top because I was an outside observer. If you're doing this activity on your own, you can certainly identify your own patterns, but you may find it easier to ask a friend or use AI to do the grouping for you.

What these emergent themes look like is completely up to you. You might notice certain values are rising to the surface, like honesty or clear communication. Maybe there are certain behaviors you've displayed, like your persistence in the face of adversity or your ability to win people over to your side. Maybe there's experience that isn't on your resume that you've completely forgotten about because it's on your resume, like the day you spent volunteering for a local summer camp or a passion project you did for yourself.

When you have your themes, write them down on a different color of sticky notes.

Some emergent themes that I was able to identify from Jack's brainstorming – one theme per sticky note.

Step 6: Group your theme and highlight sticky notes.

Like Step 5, this step is whatever you want to make it. The way that we approached it was by using the theme sticky notes as supporting evidence for the highlight sticky notes. It helped us to better match my partner's skills and experiences to the requirements provided in the job interview.

This reframing kickstarted the process of developing key points, which I wrote more about in the same blog post I linked earlier.

Highlight sticky notes and emergent theme sticky notes, now grouped.

When my partner and I went through our own affinity diagramming session, we found ourselves breaking out of the old scripts, revisiting the things he had unintentionally edited out long ago, and breaking new ground simply by starting from the job description instead of our own storybook.

Whether you use this tool once, not at all, or for every interview you have moving forward, I hope that it helps you jumpstart and even unlock parts of your story that previously seemed set in stone. Happy interviewing!