--- description: "Jotaid was built around Design Thinking: the three tiers, Smart Theme's affinity mapping, theme summaries that produce insights and HMWs — and how to run a full round in it." --- # Design Thinking The other methods here are things you **implement in Jotaid**. Design Thinking is not — **Jotaid was built around it**. The three tiers (Project → Theme → Note) come from its view of how work organises itself; the built-in templates for problem framing, insight cards and brainstorming each map to a phase; and the two AI features that matter most here do Design Thinking work by design — Smart Theme performs affinity mapping, theme summary performs human-centred synthesis. This page is about running a round. ## What One Round Looks Like | Phase | What you do in Jotaid | |-------|----------------------| | **Empathise / research** | [Quick Capture](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/capture): interview notes, clippings, papers read through the [literature template](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) | | **Define** | [Smart Theme](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/themes) for affinity mapping → [theme summary](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/themes) for insights and HMWs → the [problem framing template](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) to close | | **Ideate** | The [brainstorm template](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) to diverge → the [canvas](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/canvas) to arrange spatially → the [co-occurrence matrix](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/matrix) for unexpected pairings | | **Prototype / test** | The [decision record template](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) to pin the choice and its reasoning → the [weekly review template](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) to look back → new observations return to empathise | It is not linear. What actually happens is repeated divergence and convergence, and the three tiers carry exactly that: the note tier always diverges, the theme tier is the first convergence, and the project note is the final one. ## Define: Affinity Mapping Is Not Labelling **Smart Theme deliberately does not label topics.** It looks for the **underlying patterns, tensions and insights** a group of notes collectively reveals. That is affinity mapping as originally meant: sticky notes are grouped not to file them, but to make "why did these end up next to each other" a question you have to answer. So Smart Theme's names tend to be phrases that name a tension rather than category words like "user research". Adjust the grouping by hand on the [canvas](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/canvas) afterwards — the AI's clustering is a first draft, and dragging cards around *is* the thinking. ## Define: Insights and HMWs The **theme summary** on a theme note is the most Design Thinking-shaped step in Jotaid. It reads every note under the theme and produces four sections: | Section | Content | |---------|---------| | **Overview** | What the theme is about, and its core tension or pattern | | **Key Findings** | Synthesised points — including **connections, contradictions and gaps** between notes | | **Insights** | 2–4 insight statements, each formatted as a blockquote | | **How Might We** | 2–3 HMW questions reframing those insights as design opportunities | Two constraints are worth knowing: - **Insights state what is happening and why it matters, never solutions** — jumping to solutions early is Design Thinking's most common failure, so this step will not do it for you - **Key Findings extract substance rather than repeat note titles** — you will not get a table of contents back > **Pitching an HMW** > > A good HMW is neither so broad as "how might we solve everything" nor so narrow as "how might we add a button". Jotaid holds itself to that range when generating them, and it works just as well as a yardstick for the ones you write yourself. ## Ideate: Let the Matrix Surprise You The risk in diverging is only ever reaching what you had already reached. This is where the [co-occurrence matrix](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/matrix) earns its place: it shows which two concepts **keep turning up in the same notes while never having been linked directly**. Put such a pair side by side and you often have an HMW nobody has asked. [Bridge nodes](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/node-types) in the graph are the same fact in another form — spanning otherwise unrelated clusters, which is where breakthroughs tend to sit. ## How It Relates to the Others | | Concerned with | |---|---------------| | **Design Thinking** | Material → insight → opportunity — **how to think** | | [Zettelkasten](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/zettelkasten) | How ideas connect and grow | | [PARA](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/para) | Where things live and when to forget them | They do not compete: DT supplies the rhythm of thinking, the slip-box supplies the way ideas connect, PARA supplies the discipline of containers. ## What It Needs Smart Theme and theme summaries are AI features, needing [Pro](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/pricing) and your own API key. Templates, the canvas, the co-occurrence matrix and the graph are **all available on the free tier** — you can run a complete round without AI, doing the affinity mapping and insight extraction yourself. ## Next Steps - [Note Templates](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/templates) — Problem framing, insight cards, brainstorming - [Themes](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/themes) — Smart Theme and theme summaries - [Co-occurrence Matrix](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/matrix) — Finding unexpected pairings