Attendees will learn why and how this methodology can be harnessed in design strategy decisions. Back in 1984, Noriaki Kano, a Japanese academic, questioned status quo beliefs about attracting and retaining customers. Kano had a different hypothesis. His seminal research study, involving 900 participants, yielded evidence to support his ideas. Kano’s work is essentially a model of 5 different emotional reactions to features/functionality and question pairs used to determine which reaction a user is experiencing. The Kano methodology was initially adopted by operations researchers, who added statistical rigor to the question pair results analysis. Product managers have leveraged aspects of the Kano approach in Quality Function Deployment (QFD). More recently, this methodology has been used by Agile teams and in market research. With boundaries between market and UX research blurring and Lean UX and Agile worlds coexisting, many UXers are becoming ‘Kano aware’. There is a gap between being Kano aware and the ability to harness its potential to gain insights. That gap is in knowing how to run a Kano study. In a recent engagement, projekt202 was asked to help a client determine how to measure delight. We dusted off the Kano methodology to see what it had to offer, applied rigor and creativity that paid off in riveting insights. A related article will appear in UX Magazine (early September). This presentation brings that article to life, and builds a case for upfront generative research.
