Dear all,

many of our clients are currently moving from a „demand-driven“ IT model to a more intentional and value-oriented „product-like“ IT model.

Value is usually understood as business value. And that makes sense, as every „IT Product“ in the end has to contribute to an improved bottom line. Still, „business value“ is a bit of a lofty concept that encompasses multiple variables. Some „hard“, such as cost (-reduction) or resource utilisation; but to drive adoption and use, „user satisfaction“ and even „user delight“ are just as important.

Balancing priorities between required functionality and user satisfaction/delight often feels like an art and not rational business decision making.

A model that helps to bring some method to this is the KANO Model, developed in the 1980 by Prof. Noriaki Kano, a Japanese scholar and consultant.

Starting from “Functionality” and “Satisfaction” as parameters, he distinguishes three types of features: Basic, Satisfiers, and Delighters as well as offers statistical evaluation and balancing schemes for the three.

Learn more from the following three posts:

What is the Kano Model?
– 
From ProductPlan’s glossary. Short read that also explains when to use.
Click to view!

The 3 qualities of a great product
– by Esther Nitafan. On top explains the use of standardized questionnaires.
Click to view!

The Complete Guide to the Kano Model
from „Folding Burritos“. A longer read. Thorough, down to statistical models.
Click to view!

A grain of salt before we part for the week: the KANO Model does not relieve you from product discovery, as users often want things that they cannot – yet – articulate.

We’ll cover this in one of the next weekend reads.

Have a great sunny weekend,
Godehard