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Use this technique when you have lots of options that need to be clustered and synthesized

How to Highlight:

Star: Have participants star or mark options that suggest a worthwhile direction (alternative: Use “Read it, Write it, Stick it” instead of “star” here)

Cluster: Once the options have been starred, cluster the marked options that are basically the same

Restate the cluster: Review all options in the cluster, and distill them to a single statement or paragraph that characterizes them all

Restate all of clusters and then review to see with which cluster(s) you want to move forward

When to Highlight:

To narrow down a lot of options

To cluster and synthesize options

Cluster and Restate help:

Clusters should include no more than three to five items; larger clusters lose the richness of the original concepts

To generate restatements, ask yourself, “what concept does this cluster represent?”

Restate all clusters in the same format as the options you’re restating

To restate idea clusters, use the statement starter: “What I see myself doing is…” Your restatement should be at least a complete sentence or two long.