The process of prioritizing product capabilities too often becomes a tug of war among opinions. But it can be made more data-driven and objective.

It starts by establishing just what problems you are trying to solve for the customer, rating how important each is, as well as how well accommodated each of those needs are currently. Those that are of high importance but poorly met will be your focus.

Kano Rating Matrix

Now you can determine which combination of capabilities will best address these key needs. To make this process more objective you can use any of a variety of Scoring Models such as: Spider Charts, Kano Modeling, or Conjoint Analysis.

The person with the best data wins the tug-of-war. More importantly, the customer and the business win too.

Bill Haines