How do you prioritize the customer requirements in the house of quality matrix?

1 Identify the customer requirements

The first step is to identify the customer requirements, which are also called the whats. These are the statements that describe what the customer wants or needs from the product or service. You can collect the customer requirements from various sources, such as surveys, interviews, feedback, reviews, or market research. You should try to capture as many customer requirements as possible, and group them into categories or themes. For example, if you are designing a laptop, some of the customer requirements could be: battery life, screen size, performance, weight, price, etc.

2 Assign importance ratings

The next step is to assign importance ratings to each customer requirement, which are also called the how muchs. These are the numerical values that indicate how important each customer requirement is for the customer satisfaction and loyalty. You can use different methods to assign importance ratings, such as direct rating, pairwise comparison, analytic hierarchy process, or conjoint analysis. The importance ratings should be normalized and scaled to a common range, such as 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. For example, if you are using a 1 to 5 scale, you could assign 5 to the most important customer requirement, and 1 to the least important one.

3 Evaluate the current performance

The third step is to evaluate the current performance of your product or service against each customer requirement, which are also called the hows. These are the measures that indicate how well your product or service fulfills each customer requirement. You can use different methods to evaluate the current performance, such as benchmarking, testing, rating, or scoring. The current performance should be expressed in the same units or scale as the importance ratings. For example, if you are using a 1 to 5 scale, you could assign 5 to the customer requirement that your product or service meets or exceeds, and 1 to the one that it fails or falls short of.

4 Calculate the satisfaction gaps

The fourth step is to calculate the satisfaction gaps between the importance ratings and the current performance for each customer requirement, which are also called the improvement opportunities. These are the differences that indicate how much room for improvement there is for each customer requirement. You can use different methods to calculate the satisfaction gaps, such as subtracting, multiplying, dividing, or weighting. The satisfaction gaps should be expressed in positive or negative values, depending on whether your current performance is above or below the importance rating. For example, if you are using subtraction, you could calculate the satisfaction gap as: importance rating - current performance.

5 Rank the customer requirements

The final step is to rank the customer requirements according to their satisfaction gaps, which are also called the priorities. These are the order that indicate which customer requirements should be addressed first and foremost in your value engineering process. You can use different methods to rank the customer requirements, such as sorting, ranking, scoring, or weighting. The ranking should be expressed in numbers or letters, depending on your preference. For example, if you are using numbers, you could assign 1 to the customer requirement with the highest satisfaction gap, and n to the one with the lowest satisfaction gap.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?