Opportunity scoring activity is a powerful technique in the world of product development, providing a structured approach to prioritize product features. It enables product teams to gauge the significance of their product features (or ideas) for users and their level of satisfaction with them. This insightful activity equips product teams with a visual chart that analyzes the interplay between importance and satisfaction, aiding them in making informed decisions about feature prioritization.
the opportunity scoring graph
Step-by-Step
- List All Possible Product Features: Begin by creating an exhaustive list of all the features your product offers.
- Rate each feature: Engage your users or their UX representatives and have them rate each feature based on these two questions. Both questions should be answered on a scale from low to high for both importance and satisfaction.:
- How important is this feature outcome to you?
- How satisfied are you with how the product delivers this feature?
- Plot on the Importance vs. Satisfaction Graph: Map the each feature onto the Importance vs. Satisfaction graph.
- Analyze the Results: The real magic of the Opportunity Scoring activity unfolds during this step:
- High Importance, High Satisfaction: These are your product’s shining stars. Focus your resources here to enhance customer satisfaction and meet critical needs.
- High Importance, Low Satisfaction: Features falling into this category demand your attention. They represent opportunities for innovation, where improving customer satisfaction can lead to a competitive edge.
- Low Importance, High Satisfaction: These features, though well-received, might not be worth further investment at this time.
- Low Importance, Low Satisfaction: It’s often wise to consider phasing out or removing these features as they contribute minimally to user satisfaction.
Incorporating opportunity scoring into your product development process is not just a modern-day innovation; it’s rooted in the outcome-driven innovation (ODI) strategy conceived by Tony Ulwick and Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) in the 1990s. By adapting this method to real-time sessions with users or their representatives, you can bridge the gap between product teams and users, ensuring that the products you create align with genuine user needs and desires. While the original approach relied on customer surveys and a 1-to-5 scale, my contemporary adaptation offers a more dynamic, visual representation. Whether you use numbers or charts, the essence remains the same—opportunity scoring empowers you to prioritize features and create products that truly matter to your users.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates
Bill Gates’ quote “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning,”, highlights the immense value of feedback from users who may not be fully satisfied with your product. These users, falling into the “high importance, low satisfaction” category in the opportunity scoring graph, are essentially pointing out areas that are crucial to them but where improvements are needed.
This post is part of a series of posts on inception related activities about prioritization techniques
