Prioritise
House of quality
Also called Quality function deployment, QFD
A matrix that links what customers need to what the product must do, so the requirements serving the most important needs rise to the top.
- Time90 to 120 minutes
- People3 to 8 people
- Steps6
What it's for
Customers describe needs in their own words; teams plan in requirements. The house of quality connects the two: needs down the side, ranked by importance; requirements across the top; and a grid in the middle where the team marks how strongly each requirement serves each need. Weighting the marks by importance shows which requirements matter most.
The roof records where requirements help or fight each other, and the right-hand side compares how competitors meet each need. It's a heavy tool, at its best for hardware or platforms where requirements trade off against each other.
How to run it
List the needs15 min
Customer needs in their words down the left, each with an importance from 1 to 5.
List the requirements15 min
Across the top, measurable things the product could do to meet them, each with a direction: more, less or a target.
Mark the relationships25 min
For each need and requirement, mark strong (9), medium (3), weak (1) or nothing.
Fill the roof10 min
Note requirements that help or hurt each other, such as weight against strength.
Compare competitors10 min
Rate how well each competitor meets each need, from 1 to 5.
Work out the priorities10 min
Multiply each mark by its need's importance and add up each requirement's column. The highest totals are the requirements to get right.
Tips
- Keep it small. Ten needs and ten requirements is already a hundred cells.
- Needs come from research, not from what the team assumes customers want.
Where it comes from
Quality function deployment was developed by Yoji Akao in Japan in the late 1960s. The house of quality chart was first used at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Kobe shipyard in 1972, and reached Western teams through John Hauser and Don Clausing's 1988 Harvard Business Review article, The House of Quality.
Pairs well with
Kano model
Sort features by how customers react to them: basics they expect, performance they want more of, and delights they don't expect.
Opportunity scoring
Rate each customer outcome for importance and satisfaction, then look for the ones that matter a lot and are served badly.
RICE scoring
Score each idea on reach, impact, confidence and effort, then rank by one number that rewards likely wins for little work.