Kano model
The Kano model, developed by Noriaki Kano in 1984, is a framework for categorising product features by their non-linear relationship to customer satisfaction. The five categories: Basic (expected — absence causes dissatisfaction, presence doesn't delight), Performance (linear — more is better), Excitement (delighters — unexpected, drive disproportionate satisfaction), Indifferent, and Reverse (unwanted).
The model's value is that it explains why feature lists aren't all created equal. A team that ships a beautiful onboarding feature (Excitement) but fails on password reset (Basic) will get worse satisfaction scores than a team that ships only the basics — because Basic features are dissatisfiers when missing, not satisfiers when present. The discovery technique uses a Kano survey: pair each feature with a functional question ('how would you feel if the product did X?') and a dysfunctional question ('if it didn't do X?') to classify features. Limitation: feature categories drift over time — yesterday's Excitement becomes today's Performance becomes tomorrow's Basic. Kano analysis is a snapshot, not a permanent classification.
Related terms
- Jobs-to-be-done
Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is a product-discovery framework, popularised by Clayton Christensen, that frames features in terms of the 'job' a customer is hiring the product to do — the underlying outcome they want — rather than demographic personas or feature lists.
- RICE scoring
RICE scoring is a prioritisation framework from Intercom that ranks initiatives by Reach (how many users affected), Impact (per-user effect, typically scored 0.