1. The Kano Model was created in 1984 by Professor Noriaki Kano while studying the
contributing factors to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The professor
classified 5 unique categories of customer requirements, 3 of which you want to end up
in your offering, the other 2 should be taken out. This model’s main objective is to help
teams understand, classify, and integrate these 3 main categories of requirements into
the products or services they are developing. The 5 categories of customer
requirements are classified depending on their ability to create customer satisfaction or
cause dissatisfaction. Knowing what category customer requirements fall into and the
importance of each requirement can help prioritize development activities and
determine what to include in your offering and where to spend resources improving
these requirements. The model describes these 5 categories on a set of axis. The y axis
is degree of satisfaction of the requirement; the y axis is the level of fulfillment or
execution of the requirement by the company. All 5 categories of requirements can be
mapped on the axis.
Performance – Simply stated, these are the requirements the customers are able to
articulate and are at the top of their minds when evaluating options. They are the most
visible of the model’s requirements and the better they are performed, the more
satisfaction they bring, conversely, the worse they are performed, the more
dissatisfaction they bring. The Professor originally called these “One-Dimensional”
because the better you execute these the more satisfaction from the customer you get.
Basic – Simply stated, these are the requirements that the customers expect and are
taken for granted. When done well, customers are just neutral, but when done poorly,
customers are very dissatisfied. Kano originally called these “Must-be’s” because they
are the requirements that must be included and are the price of entry into a market.
Excitement – Simply stated, these are the requirements that are unexpected and
pleasant surprises or delights. These are the innovations you bring into your offering.
They delight the customer when there, but do not cause any dissatisfaction when
missing because the customer never expected them in the first place. Kano originally
called these “Attractive or Delighters” because that’s exactly what they do.
Indifferent – Simply stated, these are the requirements that the customers simply don’t
care if they are present or absent, their satisfaction remains neutral under either
circumstance.
Reverse – Simply stated, these are the requirements that cause dissatisfaction when
present and satisfaction when absent. These are very rare but do happen occasionally.
Kano also designed a special survey now known today as the Kano Survey. It can be
designed and used to categorize all the requirements. In this survey, you formulate two
strategic questions, a functional and dysfunctional representation of the requirement.
Depending on how the respondents answer the question, the results will be aggregated
and compiled into a graph which clearly shows you which category the
requirement/feature falls into. Using this information along with some other voice of
2. customer data, the development team can find gaps in their offering and potential holes
in their customer research. Understanding how the list of requirements fits into the
Model can also help a development team determine which of the requirements or
features to include, which need enhancement, which need cost reduction, which should
be excluded, and which to simply leave alone.
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3. Figure 2 – Performance Requirements
Performance Requirements – These are the requirements the customers are able to
articulate and are at the top of their minds when making choices and evaluating options.
They are the most visible of the Kano requirements and likely the easiest to acquire
because customers freely talk about these type of requirements. Performance
Requirements are typically understood through classic research methods like
interviews, surveys, and focus groups. As shown in Figure 2, the better they are
performed (x-axis), the more satisfaction they bring (y-axis), conversely, the worse they
are performed, the more dissatisfaction they bring. These are often “more the better”
requirements but can also be “less the better” like price, noise, etc. Kano originally
called these “One-Dimensional” because they are somewhat linear in nature, the better
you execute these, the more satisfaction from the customer you get.
Examples of this type of quality are the battery life on a cell phone or the time it takes to
get an oil change at your dealership or the resolution in your new flat screen TV. The
better these requirements are executed, the more satisfaction the customer will receive.
These are often “more the better” requirements but can also be “less the better” on
occasion for things like price, noise, emissions, etc.
4. Figure 3 – Basic Requirements
Basic Requirements – As shown in Figure 3, these are the requirements that the
customers expect to get and are very often taken for granted. Consider these
requirements as obvious expectations your customers have. When execution is poor,
satisfaction is low and when execution is done well, satisfaction is neutral. It is very
likely that every one of your competitors provides these requirements as well. The
interesting thing about these Basic Requirements is that when we do these well,
customers are just neutral, but when done poorly, customers are very dissatisfied. Kano
originally called these “Must-be’s” because they are the requirements that must be
included and are the price of entry into a market. Typical sources to discover these
needs are industry standards, government regulations, customer complaints, corporate
experience and tribal knowledge.
Examples of this type of quality is the strength of the handle on your favorite coffee cup,
windshield wipers on a car, the cleanliness of the carpet in a hotel room or the reliability
of a lock on the door of the new car you are considering to purchase. If these are done
extremely well, it does very little to enhance your satisfaction, the customer will typically
remain neutral.
5. Figure 4 – Excitement Requirements
Excitement Requirements – As arguably one of the most important of the categories,
these are the requirements that are unexpected pleasant surprises or delights. These
are the innovations you bring into your offering. Some companies call them USP’s
(Unique Selling Propositions) As shown in Figure 4, they delight the customer when
there, but do not cause any dissatisfaction when missing because the customer never
expected them in the first place. Kano originally called these “Attractive or Delighters”
because that’s exactly what they are and do.
Examples of this type of quality is Zappos with their free shipping both ways and Nest’s
thermostat that programs itself. Nest also came out with a smoke detector that can be
silenced with a simple wave of the hand instead of finding a ladder and pushing a button
that doesn’t work or having to find and disconnect the battery that often ends up with a
broken smoke detector, not sure about you, but I’ve done this. Excitement Quality
doesn’t have to be expensive. Have you ever pulled into a gas station only to realize the
fuel filler door is on the other side of the car? Back in the late 80’s Ford put a little arrow
next to the fuel icon on the dashboard to remind people what side of the car the fuel
door is. Cost, about 1/100 penny per car. If that. It was a very inexpensive solution to a
6. customer pain and such a good idea that all cars do it now. On the other hand, if it is a
big innovation, customers will be very willing to pay more for big innovations.
Figure 5 – Zone of Indifference
Indifferent Requirements – As seen in Figure 5, these are the requirements that most
customers simply don’t care about whether they are present or absent, their satisfaction
remains neutral under either circumstance. Examples of this type of quality are some of
the advanced features on a cell phone that only one in every hundred people would
ever use. If the vast majority of customers don’t care about these functions or features
and they are expensive to include you may want to consider eliminating them in your
offering because they provide so little value.
Reverse Requirements – Figure 6 shows likely the rarest of the five categories, and
items you want to consistently exclude from your offering. These are the requirements
that cause dissatisfaction when present and satisfaction when absent. They are the
features or attributes that cause customers to say “I hate when they do that”. Although
these are very rare, they do sometimes find themselves in a product or service typically
due to a lack of product testing or customer research.
7. A small examples of this type of quality was Microsoft’s little “paperclip helper”. Most
people didn’t like it and it was even more annoying because it was difficult to turn off
unless you knew the secret to disabling it.
Figure 6 – Reverse Requirements
Important note: There are certainly several shades of grey between categories. It’s
important to keep in mind that there are very few absolutes with the Kano Model. What
one describes as an Excitement Quality will be described as a Performance Quality by
others and maybe even a Basic by a third customer. Don’t be over analytic with the
model, the masses don’t always think alike. What is expected (Basic) by one person
may be perceived as an innovation (Excitement) to another person. These differences
are often attributed to customer segmentation issues and the simple fact that all
customers are a little different and each of them have different priorities. You will see in
conducting a Kano Survey that once you aggregate the data you look for tendencies
and dominant responses to draw conclusions about the masses and customer
segmentation issues. One of the main benefits of understanding the Kano Model is to
realize there are three categories of requirements that need to be designed into your
product or service and missing the right needs in all three categories may endanger the
success of your offering.
8. #2) Time has a big influence on Excitement Quality
Figure 7 – Influence of Time on Excitement Quality
I often tell people, “What’s exciting today will be asked for tomorrow and expected the
next day.” Excitement Quality only lasts a short time so the pump has to be continually
primed with new innovations. There are a thousand of examples of this phenomenon
including heat in a car, wireless internet in a hotel, cameras in cell phones, and remote
controls for your TV. Imagine any of those missing. Innovations only last so long until
the customers start requesting these features or the competition copies them and
eventually they becomes the standard.
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