Prioritise
Kano model
Sort features by how customers react to them: basics they expect, performance they want more of, and delights they don't expect.
- Time30 to 60 minutes
- People2 to 8 people
- Steps4
What it's for
Not every feature makes customers happier the more you invest. Basics only cause anger when missing; performance features please in proportion; delighters surprise. Sorting a backlog this way shows where extra effort pays and where it is wasted.
The proper Kano survey asks customers two questions per feature. This board is the quick team version: use it to form hypotheses, then check them.
How to run it
List the features5 min
One feature per note, anywhere on the board.
Sort them15 min
Move each into the category you think customers would put it in.
Check the basics8 min
Are all the must-bes covered? A missing basic outweighs any delighter.
Plan what to check5 min3 votes each
Vote on the placements you're least sure of, to ask customers about.
Tips
- Delighters become basics over time. Yesterday's surprise is today's expectation.
- If the team can't agree on a feature, that disagreement is the research question.
Where it comes from
Developed by Noriaki Kano, a professor at the Tokyo University of Science, and published in 1984.
Pairs well with
MoSCoW prioritisation
Sort requirements into must have, should have, could have and won't have this time, to agree scope against a fixed deadline.
Impact and effort matrix
Place each option by how much difference it would make and how hard it would be, to find the quick wins and the big bets.
$100 test
Each person splits an imaginary $100 between the options, which shows not just what people prefer but how strongly.