6. POA Techniques

6.11 Kano Analysis

Guide to Product Ownership Analysis

IIBA.org KnowledgeHub Guide to Product Ownership Analysis 6. POA Techniques 6.11 Kano Analysis

Purpose

Kano analysis is used to understand which product characteristics or qualities will prove to be a significant differentiator in the marketplace and help to drive customer satisfaction.

See section 7.5 of Agile Extension V2 for details.

Kano analysis is an extremely powerful tool in the context of POA. Usually, during the initial stages of building the product, when most features are being deliberated, there is a general lack of data, KPIs, or other relevant metrics to make decisions. Kano analysis provides a way to analyze different product characteristics before they are released.

Kano Analysis and the POA Domains

POA Domain	Kano Analysis
Applying Foundational Concepts	A modified version of Kano analysis can be used to understand gaps in current product offerings and customer satisfaction, which can lead to discovery of new product ideas.
Cultivate Customer Intimacy	Can be used with elicitation techniques to develop customer understanding by: Assessing the impact of a new feature, or Discussing modifications to features. Provides a clear delimitation of features into threshold, performance, and excitement characteristics.
Engage the Whole Team	Used to evaluate direct customer input. If customer opinions and feedback are not available, the team may be engaged to analyze product features.
Make an Impact	Applied to understand which product characteristics can be a significant differentiator by categorizing product characteristics as: Excitement characteristics which have significant impact in the short term. *Performance characteristics,* which generate long-term impact. Threshold characteristics, which, if missed, would negatively impact product acceptance, even if there are a significant number of exciting or performance features.
Deliver Often	Used to determine the right balance of features from those planned for release. Depending on the product strategy and roadmap, a mix of performance and excitement characteristics can be provided in each release
Learn Fast	Some of the measures identified in this domain can be assessed through Kano analysis to make the learning more impactful. For example, Customer satisfaction can be a measurable output with NPS. Performance and threshold characteristics can be qualified with the Customer Effort Score (CES). This leads to identifying which features to include in the next iteration.
Obsess About Value	To maximize the value of a product the team might select too many excitement characteristics and not enough threshold characteristics. This would lead to misalignment in product-market fit. Kano analysis can help identify a balanced approach to maximize overall value delivery.