Landscape map

A landscape map starts with a structure you draw before any content exists: two axes, a set of swimlanes, concentric rings, a timeline. Then the group places notes onto it, and the shape of the cluster tells you something.

The structure is the difference from an affinity diagram. There, groupings emerge from the notes and you name them afterwards. Here, you decide the dimensions first and ask where each item falls.

Examples

Competitor products placed on “simple to complex” against “consumer to professional” show which corner is crowded and which is empty. Features placed on a line from “daily use” to “rarely used” settle an argument about what belongs on the home screen. A prioritisation grid such as impact versus effort is a landscape map with a specific purpose.

Choosing the axes

This is the real design work. Good axes are independent, so that items can sit anywhere in the space, and they are things the group can actually judge. “Quality” is a poor axis because everyone will place their own work in the top right. Pick measurable or at least arguable dimensions.

In practice

It works best as a group activity: ask people to place notes silently, then talk about the outliers. Disagreement about where a note belongs is the useful output. The map is a prompt for that conversation, so photograph it afterwards and treat the placement as a hypothesis, not a result.