Discover Latent Customer Needs and Introduce Exciting Quality into Product Development

The original Kano Model (the diagram below, left) was a framework developed by Noriaki Kano, Ph.D., Nobuhiko Seraku, and Fumio Takahashi in Japan in the 1970s, for a study on “attractive quality creation.” It helps explain why removing defects does not equal customer satisfaction.

Original Kano model diagram

New Kano model diagram by Harold Ross / QFD Institute

The competitive edge from products that excite customers is important for product line planning and brand distinction. Prompted by the intriguing diagram, many marketers and product planners as well as QFD practitioners have used the Kano concept to find a unique perspective for segmentation. Some also attempted to apply it to strategy and advertising. However, few have succeeded in using the original Kano Model effectively for these purposes or integrating it into QFD, based on our review of many published case studies. Below explains why.

The New Kano Model and QFD

When the original Kano model was introduced to the West in the mid-1980s by Dr. Yoji Akao (founder of QFD methodology) during his teaching in America, the QFD practitioners in the U.S. intuitively liked how the model explained the power of the latent requirements of business challenges today, such as:

  • How can a company maintain a competitive edge in a market filled with products of equally satisfying quality and functionality?

  • How can your new products be differentiated when they are quickly followed by low-priced clones?

  • In some product segments, consumers are making the purchasing decision more and more on psychological and emotional appeal. How can your product and brand connect emotionally with them?

  • How can engineers address the emotional design needs of new breeds of consumers who are highly informed, multi-cultural, and globally minded and represent a different purchasing decision process?

These challenges offer new opportunities for generating greater sales and market share — if you can successfully harness the insights of latent needs and exciting quality.

This is where you need New Kano Model and Modern QFD. The original Kano model cannot deliver it. This is why:

  • The original Kano study measured only satisfaction against the existence or absence of a 'feature'. It does not address customer needs.

  • The categories in the original study came from survey responses by knowledgeable customers responding to inverse-paired questions; they are not assigned by engineers as many case studies show incorrectly.

  • The original Kano model relied on the two data points of "if" and the "if not", and therefore it should not have drawn the curves as the researchers of the original study had done incorrectly. It takes three data points to inscribe a curve.

The above problem was addressed by Mr. Harold Ross, a retired General Motors Product Development manager and director of the QFD Institute. He called this the New Kano Model and it adds the necessary questions to draw the curve (the diagram above, right) and use it to extrapolate design decisions. It also reveals hidden market segments.

New Kano Model Workshop

Although QFD Black Belt® training includes some introduction, the New Kano Model Workshop provides an explicit framework for effectively learning how to apply the model and merging this powerful method for exciting quality into QFD and your product development process.

This Workshop will:

  • Introduce participants to the New Kano Model concepts, methods, and applications such as market segmentation;

  • Present case studies where the Kano Model was successfully used;

  • Explain the rationale behind the Kano Model: why are some features exciting, while others are only expected?;

  • Show the integration of the Kano Model and QFD;

  • Offer participants a chance to develop, present, and analyze a Kano Survey.

Who should attend?

  • Anyone interested in developing superior, competitive products;

  • Anyone wanting to understand customer “WOW” or “Customer Delight”;

  • Anyone who wants to understand how to “apply the Kano Model”

  • Product planners and decision makers involved in product strategy (either new or improving current products)

  • No Prerequisites

The New Kano Model Workshop can be also held as an in-house workshop for your project team. Please contact us to inquire.