Product Management: Foundations to Practice · Prioritization Frameworks
The Kano Model
Not all features affect satisfaction the same way. The Kano Model gives product teams a vocabulary for the difference between a baseline expectation and a genuine delighter, and warns that today's delighter decays into tomorrow's baseline.
Developed in 1984 by Professor Noriaki Kano of Tokyo University of Science, the Kano Model classifies features by how they affect customer satisfaction, based on paired survey questions asking how a customer would feel if a feature were present versus absent [14]. Cross-referencing the two answers for each feature places it into one of several categories, revealing a nuance a simple 'how important is this feature' survey question would miss entirely.
- The Kano Model classifies features via paired presence/absence survey questions into distinct satisfaction categories.
- Must-be features cause dissatisfaction if missing but no delight if present; Performance features scale satisfaction linearly; Delighters create disproportionate satisfaction when unexpected.
- Feature decay means today's delighter becomes tomorrow's baseline expectation as competitors catch up.
- Never skip a Must-be feature; invest steadily in Performance features; treat Delighters as the primary source of real differentiation.