Overview
The Kano Model is one of many prioritization frameworks designed to help product teams prioritize initiatives. The Kano model is a theory for product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Noriaki Kano. This model provides a framework for understanding how different features of a product or service impact customer satisfaction, allowing organizations to prioritize development efforts effectively.
How It Works
The team will weigh features according to two competing criteria: Their potential to satisfy customers and the investment needed to implement them. Unlike other prioritization frameworks, a Kano analysis focuses almost entirely on customer reactions. This can be helpful for keeping the customer at the forefront of your decision-making.
Feature Categories
The three classic "customer wants" in the Kano Model are:
Must-Be (Basic Expectations)
- Features that must exist for the product to function
- Customers expect these as a baseline
- Their presence doesn't increase satisfaction
- Their absence causes significant dissatisfaction
- Example: A hotel room must be clean
- Features where more is better
- Linear relationship between feature quality and satisfaction
- Satisfaction increases as performance improves
- Example: Faster website loading times
Attractive (Delighters)
- Unexpected features that create disproportionate jump in satisfaction
- Customers don't expect these features
- Their presence creates genuine excitement
- Their absence doesn't cause dissatisfaction
- Example: Free unexpected upgrades or bonuses
Additional Categories:
- Indifferent: Features that don't affect satisfaction either way
- Reverse: Features that some customers like and others dislike
Implementation Process
Kano Model feature prioritization typically consists of three main steps:
1. Research
- Survey customers with Kano questionnaires
- Ask pairs of questions about each feature:
- How would you feel if this feature was present?
- How would you feel if this feature was absent?
- Analyze responses to categorize features
2. Analyze
- Plot features on the Kano diagram
- Identify which category each feature falls into
- Understand customer expectations vs. delighters
3. Decide
The proper strategy in most cases is to:
- Prioritize all "Must-be" (basic) features first
- Then add as many Performance features as possible
- Finally add some "Attractive" (customer delight) features if you can
Key Benefits
- Provides nuanced understanding of customer needs
- Allows teams to prioritize features based on their impact on customer satisfaction
- Focuses on customer needs and expectations
- Helps identify essential and innovative features
- No additional internal data needed (unlike models requiring time, effort, or revenue estimates)
- Particularly useful for early-stage startups without extensive data
Limitations
- Requires customer research and surveys
- Can be time-consuming to implement properly
- Customer preferences may change over time
- What delights today may be expected tomorrow
Best Practices
- Survey a representative sample of customers
- Review and update categorization regularly
- Remember that delighters can become must-haves over time
- Combine with other prioritization methods for comprehensive decision-making
- Use for both new features and existing feature improvements
Best Use Cases
- Product feature prioritization
- Understanding customer expectations
- Identifying opportunities for differentiation
- Early-stage product development
- Customer satisfaction improvement initiatives
- Competitive analysis
- Service design and improvement
Integration with Other Frameworks
The Kano Model works well in combination with:
- RICE Framework (for effort estimation)
- MoSCoW Method (for requirement prioritization)
- Value vs. Effort matrices
- User story mapping
