Kano: Utility at work

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"Customer value", aka "the value proposition", is complicated. 

Books fill the shelves on those topics. 

• What do 'early adopters' value?
• How does age come into play?
• Is economic willingness different from economic capability in the value equation?
• How do culture and relationships figure in the proposition?

All good questions, to be sure. 

But the missing quality is "UTILILTY", specifically "marginal utility." Marginal utility is the added satisfaction a user (customer, or consumer) gets from having one more unit of a product or service. 

Marginal utility separates the "willing" from the "capable", given the capacity to spend. The whole idea of working on the margin begs images of value plots that could be anywhere from linear (the last unit is just as valuable and desired as the next unit) to various shapes of non-linear (the last and next units' values are different)

One might ask: is there a way to map all this stuff so that a picture emerges? Yes. Kano Analysis may help see the bigger picture.

What is Kano analysis?

Kano analysis is a product feature/function evaluation tool that gives visualization to relative merit over time as trends change. The usual presentation is a four-sector grid with trend lines that connect the sectors. 

The grids are defined by the horizontal and vertical scales. Don't take the word 'scale' too seriously; for the most part the scales are non-calibrated, but informed, opinion:

• Vertical: customer attitude, feeling of satisfaction, or other elements of value appeal.'
• Horizontal: some quality (or metric) of the feature/function that's important to the customer.

 

Trends and Utility

The trends plot the utility of changing customer satisfaction (vertical) as a function of product functionality (horizontal). These plots vary from linear to nearly exponentially non-linear.  And, the utility of satisfaction need not maintain only one direction; direction can change, trending up or down, as customer/user attitudes change.

 

Developers use the Kano board with sticky notes to show how feature/function in the form of stories or narratives might play out over time.

 And, we take the trouble to do this because:

• There's only so much investment dollars available; the dollars need to be applied to the best value of the project.
  Presumably that's the "ah-hah!" feature, but the "more is better" is there to keep up with competition; and, some stuff just has to be there because it's commonly expected or need by regulation.
  
• Trends may influence sequencing of iterations and deliveries. Too late, and decay has set in and the market's been missed.
• The horizontal axis may be transparent to the customer/user, but may not be transparent to regulators, support systems, and others concerned with the "ilities". Thus, not only don't forget about it, but actually set aside resources for these 'indifferent' features and functions.
  

How far ahead of the trend can you be and not be too far ahead? Just a rhetorical question to close this out.

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Like this blog? You'll like my books also! Buy them at any online book retailer!

A bit of Kano Analysis

---

"Customer value", aka "the value proposition", is complicated. 

Books fill the shelves on those topics. 

• What do 'early adopters' value?
• How does age come into play?
• Is economic willingness different from economic capability in the value equation?
• How do culture and relationships figure in the proposition?

One might ask: is there a way to map all this stuff so that a picture emerges? If there is, I've not seen it. But, taking those questions one at a time, Kano Analysis may help see the bigger picture.

What is Kano analysis?

Kano analysis is a product feature/function evaluation tool that gives visualization to relative merit over time as trends change. The usual presentation is a four-sector grid with trend lines that connect the sectors. 

The grids are defined by the horizontal and vertical scales. Don't take the word 'scale' too seriously; for the most part the scales are non-calibrated, but informed, opinion:

• Vertical: customer attitude, feeling of satisfaction, or other elements of value appeal.'
• Horizontal: some quality (or metric) of the feature/function that's important to the customer.

 

The trends need not be linear, and need not be monotonic, changing direction as customer/user attitudes change.

 

Developers use the Kano board with sticky notes to show how feature/function in the form of stories or narratives might play out over time.

 And, we take the trouble to do this because:

• There's only so much investment dollars available; the dollars need to be applied to the best value of the project.
  Presumably that's the "ah-hah!" feature, but the "more is better" is there to keep up with competition; and, some stuff just has to be there because it's commonly expected or need by regulation.
  
• Trends may influence sequencing of iterations and deliveries. Too late, and decay has set in and the market's been missed.
• The horizontal axis may be transparent to the customer/user, but may not be transparent to regulators, support systems, and others concerned with the "ilities". Thus, not only don't forget about it, but actually set aside resources for these 'indifferent' features and functions.
  

How far ahead of the trend can you be and not be too far ahead? Just a rhetorical question to close this out.

---

Buy them at any online book retailer!

Kano analysis and Agile

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Kano analysis is a new product feature/function evaluation tool that gives visualization to feature/function relative merit over time as trends change. The usual presentation is a four-sector grid with trend lines that connect the sectors.

The grids are defined by the horizontal and vertical scales that are easily set up on a white boad in the war room (don't take the word 'scale' too seriously; for the most part this is uncalibrated opinion):

• Vertical: customer attitude
• Horizontal: some quality (or metric) of the feature/function that's important to the customer.

The trends need not be linear, and need not be monotonic, changing direction as customer/user attitudes change (Again, an equation can be defined for these lines, but the focus here is not on the exact formula of the line, just the general notion).

Agilists use the Kano board with sticky notes to show how feature/function in the form of stories might play out over time.

 And, we take the trouble to do this because:

• There's only so much investment; it needs to be applied to the best value of the project. Presumably that's the "ah-hah!" feature, but the "more is better" keeps up with competition; and, some stuff just has to be there because it's expected
• Trends may influence sequencing of iterations and deliveries. Too late, and decay has set in and the market's been missed.
• The horizontal axis may be transparent to the customer/user, but may not be transparent to regulators, support systems, and others concerned with the "ilities". Thus, don't forget about it!

Now, wouldn't you like to have been a fly on the wall in the Apple war room a few years ago when they debated doing away with the floppy drive; or, more recently, the spinning disc. I wonder how they drew the trend lines and made their investment decisions?

How far ahead of the trend can you be and not be too far ahead? Just a rhetorical question to close this out.

---

Read in the library at Square Peg Consulting about these books I've written
Buy them at any online book retailer!

Read my contribution to the Flashblog

Kano and Agile

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Kano analysis is a new product feature/function evaluation tool that gives visualization to feature/function relative merit over time as trends change. The usual presentation is a four-sector grid with trend lines that connect the sectors.

The grids are defined by the horizontal and vertical scales that are easily set up on a white boad in the war room (don't take the word 'scale' too seriously; for the most part this is uncalibrated opinion):

• Vertical: customer attitude
• Horizontal: some quality (or metric) of the feature/function that's important to the customer.

The trends need not be linear, and need not be monotonic, changing direction as customer/user attitudes change (Again, an equation can be defined for these lines, but the focus here is not on the exact formula of the line, just the general notion).

Agilists use the Kano board with sticky notes to show how feature/function in the form of stories might play out over time.

 And, we take the trouble to do this because:

• There's only so much investment; it needs to be applied to the best value of the project. Presumably that's the "ah-hah!" feature, but the "more is better" keeps up with competition; and, some stuff just has to be there because it's expected
• Trends may influence sequencing of iterations and deliveries. Too late, and decay has set in and the market's been missed.
• The horizontal axis may be transparent to the customer/user, but may not be transparent to regulators, support systems, and others concerned with the "ilities". Thus, don't forget about it!

Now, wouldn't you like to have been a fly on the wall in the Apple war room a few years ago when they debated doing away with the floppy drive; or, more recently, the spinning disc. I wonder how they drew the trend lines and made their investment decisions?

How far ahead of the trend can you be and not be too far ahead? Just a rhetorical question to close this out.

---

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Another post on Kano Method

I gave a recent presentation on the Kano Model as applied to the business case for new product development.  I put the charts on slideshare.net.  You can also find my Kano presentation for agile practitioners there also.

If you are interested in more detail, here is a good presentation by a different author of the model with a lot of narrative on definitions.

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Being Agile with Kano Analysis

Kano analysis is a new product requirements tool that gives visualization to the relative merits, or value, of requirements. Agile is a project method that focus' on intimate customer involvement in the development of new user value.

The slideshow below gives some of the highpoints of the Kano tool in the context of the Agile method.

You will see that one quadrant of the Kano chart is the 'customer delight' quadrant. Here, often latent requirements emerge and become product 'ah-hah!'s. Ah-hah!s are the real discriminators. These are the ones that will fascinate users, heighten their interest in the project, and become the grist for early adopters.

It's around the ah-hah!s that you can build the project theme -- the real value proposition for the customer.

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Being Agile with Kano Analysis

View more presentations from John Goodpasture.