Kano model

Kano is a simple model that forces the experimenter or engineer to take into account the basic performance and excitement characteristics of the customer. It is an essential early step of understanding the customer and how the functionality of the particular design may affect the customer satisfaction. Ultimately the understanding gained by the Kano model is used in the QFD analysis to define and redefine customer requirements.

In the most simplistic understanding of the Kano model one has to understand the two variables that effect the clarity of the customer functionality. They are closeness, which refers to how direct the communication with the customer actually is; and effectiveness, which refers to the accuracy of the information collected from the customer.

The process for collecting the information usually falls into the following typical categories: 1) customer complaint(s); 2) survey(s); 3) marketing research (data mining, conjoint analysis, focus group(s)and so on); and 4) interview(s). Of these, the interview is the most powerful since it closes the "gap" in the customer requirement perspective in the most direct way. All of them are used with good results. In fact, quite often a combination of these may be the best approach, so that leverage of their strengths can be optimized. However, we believe that by interviewing someone the experimenter acknowledges that he or she cares about the customer, acknowledges the use of the product and/or service, and acknowledges the fact that perhaps the product or service is not what the customer wants. Therefore, in essence the experimenter is asking the customer for his or her help to understand what is really wanted. The personal interaction for this is very important and quite often not emphasized. The drawback of the interview, of course, is time and money.