Prioritizing Features that Delight Customers
The battle to come up with features for customers is never-ending for product teams. In fact, Steve Jobs famously said that “a lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” However, not every product team has (or should have) the same level of blind faith as Jobs. That's why, wherever feasible, it's critical to use a data-driven approach to product development in order to reduce risk and establish a roadmap that fits with customer wants and requirements.
Unfortunately, some of the biggest problems arise when it comes time to prioritize your ideas. There are a variety of product development strategies that can help. And with intent data, you can fuel a product roadmap that’s sure to lead to success.
Prioritizing your ideas, however, might be one of the most difficult aspects of synthesizing features from ideas. There are a variety of product development strategies that can help. And with Kano Model?(pronounced “Kah-no”), you can fuel a product roadmap that’s sure to lead to success.
Product managers have long used models to help them make decisions, making feature development as scientific as possible. The Value Versus Complexity Model, weighted scoring, the buy-a-feature method, story mapping, and a variety of other approaches are all viable options.
The Kano Model, however, is one that stands out.
The Kano Model is an approach to prioritizing features on a product roadmap based on the degree to which they are likely to satisfy customers.
The objective of this Model is to create a roadmap that avoids things that consumers are either uninterested in or unsatisfied with. Instead, you focus on things that add excitement, improve performance, or satisfy fundamental requirements.
How does the Kano Model Work?
Product teams use the Kano Model to compile a list of prospective new features that are competing for development resources and space on the roadmap.?The team will then weigh these features according to two competing criteria:
The Kano Model is also known as the "Customer Delight vs. Implementation Investment" strategy.
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Kano Model Feature Categories?
It identifies three types of initiatives product teams will want to develop and two types that should be avoided.
?The three categories of initiatives that could earn a slot on your roadmap include:
Basic Features
These are the features that your product must have in order to be competitive. Customers anticipate and take for granted certain amenities. This necessitates their inclusion. They may also lead to disappointment if they don't work as planned.
Performance Features
These are features that improve consumer satisfaction proportionately as you spend in them. Because of the direct, linear link between how much you invest in it and the amount of customer pleasure it produces, Dr. Noriaki referred to this sort of feature as "one-dimensional." These also feature customers who know they want and weigh heavily when deciding whether to choose your product or your competitor’s.
Excitement Features
When you invest in excitement features, you get a disproportionate rise in consumer delight. Customers may not notice if you don't have these features; however, if you do have them and continue to invest in them, you will produce tremendous consumer delight. These characteristics may also be thought of as the one-of-a-kind innovations and surprises you put in your product. These "attractive" characteristics were dubbed "delighters" by Dr. Noriaki because they have that effect on consumers, and delight may result in an outsized favorable response to your product.
It’s also worth pointing out, however, that the model also identifies two types of features you will want to keep off of your roadmap:
After the internal product team has determined which of the potential new features fall into which categories (including the two negative ones—indifference and dissatisfaction), the team will take the issue directly to users or prospective users through customer surveys, questionnaires, and other methods of feedback.
Wrap up!
For product teams searching for a systematic method to feature prioritization, the Kano Model is a valuable framework. It also assists teams interested in prioritizing features that they feel would please customers.