By Elisabeth Goodman, 8th November 2015
The Kano model is traditionally used as a ‘Voice of the Customer’ Lean Sigma tool
I had the pleasure of co-presenting a seminar with Carl Halford recently, for the APM (Association for Project Management) Thames Valley Branch, on behalf of the Enabling Change SIG.
The full set of slides and the notes from our event: Process Improvement and Change Management are available on the APM website.
The Kano model is traditionally used in Lean and Six Sigma as a ‘Voice of the Customer’ tool, to understand customer requirements, and to distinguish between the ‘critical’ versus ‘nice to haves’.
Carl used the model for a lively interactive exercise with the delegates, using a dry cleaning business as the basis for the discussion.
Carl’s demonstration was a helpful reminder of how effective the Kano model can be as a tool for stakeholder analysis.
As he said, there can be no debate about the ‘must-haves’, or critical requirements. If these are not satisfied, then those customers will never come back, and word-of-mouth could be your ruin.
The ‘more is better’ line (which I had learnt about as the ‘it depends’ requirements), are those that may make a difference to customers depending on their circumstances or what else is going on in the store on any particular day.
The ‘delighters’ are the ones that will win your customers’ loyalty, and cause them to recommend you to others. Of course these ‘delighters’ are also a risk to managing your long-term resources as they may in time become expected ‘must-haves’.
Using the Kano model for team building
What especially peaked my interest was Carl’s suggestion that the Kano model could also be used for team building.
A team might have traditionally used the Kano model as part of a team meeting: to help extract what everyone already knows about their stakeholders, and to agree what other research or conversations might be needed to enhance that understanding.
Using the Kano model for team building works on the premise that each team member is a stakeholder in the team’s success. Carl mentioned that he tends to use the model for project teams, but it could also be used for an operational team.
Each person is likely to have uniques ‘must haves’, ‘more is better’, and ‘delighter’ expectations. There will also be some overlaps between what different people want.
I can imagine preparing a wall poster of the Kano model, and issuing each team member with post-it notes to provide the basis for a rich discussion and enhanced understanding of the various perspectives within the team. If managed well, this might help the team through its ‘storming’ phase of development and pave the way for greater trust and support.
I’m looking forward to giving this alternative application of the Kano model a try, and of course will be curious to hear about anyone else’s experience of this approach.
Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that helps business teams and their managers to enhance their effectiveness for greater productivity and improved team morale. (We use coaching, training, facilitation, mentoring and consulting in our work with our clients.)
Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting just under 6 years ago, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting Information Management and other business teams on a global basis.
Elisabeth is accredited in Change Management, in Lean Sigma, in Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner.
She is a member of CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals) and of APM (Association for Project Management).