The Kano model provides a great framework for not only thinking about how to prioritize new features, but also giving a great lens for evaluating existing ones.
Even if you don’t use the Kano questions in customer interviews, the Kano chart of the emotional responses to a feature helps think about the life cycle of existing features. Most Kano analyses focus on the Delighters/Attractive (features that drastically increase satisfaction, especially as they are enhanced) versus Basic Needs/Must-Haves (features that remove dissatisfaction with a product, up to a certain threshold). There are other emotional responses, however, of Indifferent/Unimportant and Detractors/Undesired. Indifferent/Unimportant features are ones that do not increase customer satisfaction as they are built, and Undesired/Detractor features decrease customer satisfaction as they are enhanced.
A great activity for onboarding a Product Manager is to look at the existing feature set of a product and classify them in the Kano emotional responses they elicit in your users. You can then interpret each response in the following way:
- Delighters/Attractive – These are often competitive advantages that you have in the marketplace that may be worth reviewing with Marketing to ensure they’re capitalizing on them. These may warrant future investment as well.
- Basic Needs/Must-Haves – Features you need to maintain to “check the box” on product capability. Over time, Delighters/Attractive features fall into this category as competitors match these capabilities, making them a feature that is taken for granted by customers. These may not warrant future investment if the basic need is met.
- Indifferent/Unimportant – Features that may have been needed at one time, but no longer serve the user. These features are eligible for sunset as long as you consider that they may have different emotional responses for different personas.
- Undesired/Detractors – Features that should be sunset now as they are negatively impacting the customer experience. They may have been well intentioned at one point, but the industry or customer landscape has changed such that they are no longer helping customers.
By going through a product’s features with this lens, you can help a new Product Manager understand the ‘why’ for existing features as well as the future plans for these features. Doing a regular feature inventory also ensures you’re thinking about feature sunset plans. You can start trying this technique today by asking the Kano questions to some existing customers about current features. From their answers, categorize them into one of the emotional responses and identify the next appropriate action for these features, be it sunset or future enhancement.