KANO/VOC Analysis: How to Classify Customer Requirements
What is the KANO Model?
The KANO model classifies customer requirements into five types: must-be (basic) requirements whose absence causes strong dissatisfaction, one-dimensional (performance) requirements where more is better, attractive (delight) requirements that surprise and delight, indifferent requirements that do not matter, and reverse requirements that annoy when present. Classification drives resource allocation: protect the baseline with must-be, compete on performance, and differentiate with delight. This prevents spreading resources evenly across all requirements.
When to Use It
Use it during product planning, voice of customer (VOC) analysis, feature prioritization in new product development, and as input to QFD. VOC is the umbrella term for collecting customer requirements, and KANO is the method that analyzes their types; VOC feeds KANO. Collect at least about 30 responses covering the main customer segments before treating the classification as stable.
How to Use It (Step by Step)
Collect raw VOC from interviews, complaints and social media, turn them into requirement statements, and design a KANO questionnaire that asks both a functional question (how do you feel if the feature is present?) and a dysfunctional question (how do you feel if it is absent?), each with five options. Enter the paired answers and the tool maps the combinations to the five requirement types, then outputs classifications, weights and the Better-Worse quadrant chart.
Key Formulas / Example
Better = (A + O)/(A + O + M + I) and Worse = −(O + M)/(A + O + M + I), where A is attractive, O one-dimensional, M must-be and I indifferent. A requirement with both high Better and high |Worse| is a key requirement to get right. The outputs can feed QFD as requirement weights.