Free Kano model template: the definitive resource for 2026

When customer insights drive your roadmap, you build what truly matters. Your team delivers features that not only work flawlessly but create the kind of satisfaction that keeps users coming back.

So, it’s only natural that every product team wants to build features that customers love. The challenge is that not all features create equal value. Basic expectations won’t impress users, while the right delighters can transform your product experience. Choose poorly, and you’ll waste development cycles on features nobody appreciates.

The Kano model cuts through this uncertainty by directly measuring customer satisfaction. It categorizes features as must-haves, performance boosters, or unexpected delighters, giving you a clear prioritization framework. This guide explores all 5 Kano categories, shows you how to run your own analysis, and includes a free template to implement immediately.

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Key takeaways

• The Kano model categorizes features into five distinct satisfaction types. These include basic (must-haves that cause frustration when missing), performance (more is better), excitement (unexpected delighters), indifferent (features users don’t care about), and reverse (features that actually annoy users).
• Focus on 8-12 genuinely debatable features for maximum insight. Skip the obvious basics and prioritize features that create internal disagreement—this is where Kano analysis provides the most valuable prioritization guidance.
• Gather 30-50 responses per customer segment using paired functional/dysfunctional questions. This proven approach (“How would you feel if this feature existed?” and “How would you feel if it didn’t exist?”) reveals true satisfaction impact rather than surface preferences.
• monday dev seamlessly transforms customer insights into development action. Custom workflows, real-time dashboards, and integrated pipelines ensure your Kano analysis directly influences sprint planning and feature delivery.
• Reassess your Kano analysis every 6-12 months to stay ahead of evolving expectations. Customer perceptions shift constantly: yesterday’s delighters become today’s basic requirements, requiring teams to continuously refresh their understanding.

What is the Kano model

The Kano model is a product prioritization framework that categorizes features based on how they impact customer satisfaction. The model was published by Dr. Noriaki Kano in 1984 and helps you understand which features will delight customers and which are simply expected, an insight you can track and manage directly on monday dev.

Think of it this way: not all features carry the same weight.

Some features, like secure login in a banking app, are basic expectations — customers get angry when they’re missing but don’t celebrate when they work. Other features, like Netflix’s download option when it first launched, surprise and delight customers but don’t cause problems when absent.

5 feature categories in the Kano model

The Kano model sorts features into five distinct categories, each showing a different relationship between what you build and how customers feel about it. Understanding these categories helps you make smarter decisions about where to invest your development time:

• Basic features. Must-have requirements that customers expect
• Performance features. More is better — satisfaction increases with improvement
• Excitement features. Delighters that create joy when present
• Indifferent features. Features customers don’t care about
• Reverse features. Features that actually annoy some users

Below, we’ll describe them in more detail.

Basic features (must-have requirements)

Basic features are your product’s foundation. Without them, customers won’t even consider using your product. Think of email functionality in a CRM or search in an e-commerce site.

When these features work perfectly, nobody notices. But when they break or go missing, customer satisfaction plummets immediately.

Teams using monday dev can flag these critical features in their backlogs to ensure they never get deprioritized for flashier additions.

Performance features

Performance features follow a simple rule: the better they work, the happier your customers become. Speed, storage, and quality all fall into this category.

These features offer clear paths for competitive advantage. If your app loads in 2 seconds while competitors’ apps take 5, you win customer satisfaction points.

monday dev helps teams track performance metrics over time and connect improvements directly to customer feedback.

Excitement features (delighters)

Excitement features are the pleasant surprises that make customers tell their friends about your product. They’re unexpected bonuses that create emotional connections with users.

However, it can be tricky. Today’s delighter becomes tomorrow’s basic feature. Real-time tracking was once an exciting innovation for ride-sharing apps — now it’s expected. Teams need to keep innovating to maintain their edge.

Indifferent features

Indifferent features are the ones nobody cares about. They don’t increase satisfaction when present or cause problems when absent.

Identifying these early saves precious development resources, which is critical when a Pendo report cited by Productlift shows that as many as 80% of software features are rarely or never used.

Why build custom font options if users don’t care?

monday dev’s prioritization frameworks help you spot and deprioritize these low-impact features during planning sessions.

Reverse features

Reverse features actually make some customers unhappy. They often result from misunderstanding your audience or adding too much complexity.

What works for power users might frustrate beginners, a gap reflected in research showing senior leaders are significantly more comfortable with work software (94%) than individual contributors (78%).

Mandatory social media integration in a finance app? That’s a reverse feature for privacy-conscious users. Understanding your specific audience prevents these missteps.

How the Kano model transforms product team decisions

The Kano model revolutionizes feature prioritization through a simple yet powerful survey technique. Teams ask customers two key questions about each potential feature: how they’d feel if it exists and how they’d feel if it doesn’t. Customers rate feelings on a scale from “I like it” to “I dislike it,” with their combined responses revealing the true satisfaction impact of each feature.

This customer-first approach differs fundamentally from methods focusing on business value or technical complexity. By zeroing in on satisfaction, product teams build what actually makes users happy rather than what seems valuable internally.

Best practices for successful implementation

• Reassess regularly: Run analysis every 6-12 months or when entering new markets to capture evolving expectations
• Segment your analysis: Different user groups often have dramatically different satisfaction drivers
• Involve cross-functional teams: Include product, engineering, and customer success perspectives for balanced insights
• Connect insights to action: Link findings directly to roadmap and sprint planning decisions

monday dev seamlessly supports this process by automating reminders for regular Kano reviews and connecting insights directly to your development pipeline. The platform integrates survey responses into your workflow, ensuring customer perspectives shape sprint planning, while cross-functional collaboration features and integrated kanban tools bring diverse viewpoints into your analysis.

When paired with lean project management principles, this approach further reduces waste and maximizes value delivery.

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When to use the Kano model for feature prioritization

The Kano model shines in specific situations where understanding customer satisfaction is crucial. It’s particularly powerful when you need to make tough choices about where to focus limited resources, and using a proof of concept template can help validate ideas early.

• MVP planning: Identify which features are truly essential versus nice-to-have
• Resource constraints: Make smart trade-offs when you can’t build everything
• Market differentiation: Find features that will set you apart from competitors
• Customer retention focus: Prioritize features that drive long-term satisfaction
• Major pivots: Reassess assumptions when entering new markets

Teams can weave Kano analysis into their regular planning cycles with monday dev or combine it with a kanban flow approach for even better process management. The platform’s flexible workflows accommodate iterative analysis, letting you refine categorizations as markets evolve.

Download your free Kano model template

Our free Kano model template gives you everything needed to start analyzing features immediately. No need to build frameworks from scratch or figure out survey formats on your own.

The template follows proven methodologies while remaining flexible enough for your specific context. You can customize questions for your product and audience while maintaining the rigor that makes Kano analysis effective.

What’s included in our Kano diagram template

The template package contains all the components for successful Kano implementation. Each element builds on real-world experience and proven methods.

Your template includes these essential components:

• Survey question templates: Ready-to-use functional and dysfunctional questions
• Response evaluation table: Clear logic for categorizing customer answers
• Kano chart visualization: Professional graph for plotting and presenting results
• Analysis worksheets: Structured guides for interpreting data and making decisions

Essential components of a Kano chart

A Kano chart plots features on two axes.

• The vertical axis shows customer satisfaction (from frustrated to delighted).
• The horizontal axis shows feature implementation (from absent to fully built).

Features appear in different areas based on their category, creating a visual map of your product landscape. This visualization makes complex relationships instantly understandable for stakeholders, and for broader process management, teams can also use kanban board templates to track feature progress.

monday dev can display these charts alongside other product metrics in unified dashboards.

Built-in survey question framework

The template includes battle-tested question formats that generate reliable results. Each question pair follows the proven functional-dysfunctional structure.

Questions ask customers to imagine life with and without each feature. This dual approach reveals true satisfaction impact, not just surface preferences. The structured format ensures responses can be clearly categorized using standard Kano logic.

5 steps to use your Kano model template

Following these steps ensures you get actionable insights from your Kano analysis. The process balances thoroughness with practicality, keeping surveys manageable while generating meaningful results.

Step 1: Identify features to evaluate

Choose 8-12 features where prioritization isn’t obvious. Focus on features that spark debate among team members or stakeholders.

Skip the obvious ones.

Basic login functionality? You know that’s essential.

Instead, evaluate features where the satisfaction impact remains unclear. monday dev helps teams collaborate on feature selection, ensuring all perspectives get heard, and a user story template can solidify those perspectives early on.

Step 2: Create functional and dysfunctional questions

Write two questions for each feature using this format:

• “How would you feel if [feature] was available?”
• “How would you feel if [feature] was not available?”

Keep questions neutral and clear. Avoid leading language that might bias responses. The goal is understanding genuine customer reactions, not confirming your assumptions.

Step 3: Gather customer feedback

Collect responses from a representative sample of your users. Aim for 30-50 responses per customer segment for reliable results.

Use multiple channels to reach different user types for comprehensive feedback:

• Email surveys. Perfect for reaching engaged users who regularly check communications, offering them flexibility to respond thoughtfully at their convenience and capturing insights from your loyal customer base.
• In-app prompts. Strategically captures feedback from active users during their actual product experience, increasing response rates and gathering contextual insights while the feature being evaluated is top-of-mind.
• Customer interviews. Delivers nuanced qualitative insights beyond simple ratings, allowing you to probe deeper into reasoning, observe emotional responses, and uncover unexpected use cases that surveys might miss.
• User testing sessions. Combines observation with feedback by watching users interact with prototypes, revealing satisfaction drivers that customers might not articulate in surveys alone.

Step 4: Analyze results using the Kano evaluation table

Match each response pair to its category using the evaluation table. When responses vary, identify the dominant category to guide decisions.

The table removes subjectivity from categorization. Document any features showing major differences across customer segments — these might need different strategies for different users.

For example, if your survey shows 60% of users categorize in-app chat as an “excitement” feature while 30% see it as “performance,” you’d classify it primarily as an excitement feature. However, if your power users (who represent your most valuable segment) consistently rate it as performance, you might prioritize improving chat quality rather than treating it as a nice-to-have delighter.

Step 5: Map features on your Kano graph

Plot categorized features on your chart. The visual representation reveals patterns and priorities at a glance.

Look for quick wins (low-effort delighters) and critical gaps (missing basic features). monday dev’s roadmap tools can incorporate these insights directly into your planning process.

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Real-world Kano model example

Let’s see how a mobile banking app team used Kano analysis to prioritize their next release. They surveyed 200 customers about potential features, while also using a test case template to verify functionality before finalizing decisions.

Their analysis revealed clear categories:

• Basic –> Two-factor authentication; customers expect security as standard
• Performance –> Transaction notifications; faster and more detailed notifications increase satisfaction
• Excitement –> Automatic savings roundup; unexpected feature that delights users
• Indifferent –> Custom app themes; most users don’t care about colors
• Reverse –> Forced social sharing; many users hate this in financial apps

Based on these insights, they prioritized notification improvements and the savings feature while dropping themes and social features. The team tracked satisfaction scores after release, validating their Kano-driven decisions.

7 common Kano model mistakes to avoid

Learning from common errors helps you conduct more effective analysis. These mistakes can undermine your insights and lead to poor prioritization decisions, but an agile solution can help mitigate them through iterative feedback loops.

So, what are the most common Kano model mistakes you should avoid?

1. Survey overload: Evaluating 30+ features at once exhausts respondents and reduces response quality. Keep surveys focused on 8-12 genuinely debatable features to maintain engagement and generate meaningful insights.
2. Biased questions: Leading language pushes customers toward specific answers. Maintain neutral phrasing in your functional/dysfunctional questions to capture authentic satisfaction impact rather than confirming existing assumptions.
3. Ignoring segments: Averaging responses across all users hides important differences, as shown by data revealing 45% of senior leaders believe change is managed ‘very well’ compared to just 23% of individual contributors. Analyze key segments separately to uncover critical satisfaction variations.
4. Static thinking: Assuming feature categories never change. Yesterday’s delighters become today’s basic requirements as markets mature, requiring teams to reassess categories every 6-12 months to stay competitive.
5. Delighter obsession: Chasing excitement features while basics crumble. Balance your roadmap between maintaining must-have functionality and introducing strategic delighters that differentiate your product experience.
6. Small samples: Making decisions based on 10 responses. Aim for 30-50 responses per customer segment to ensure statistical reliability and prevent individual outliers from skewing your feature categorization.
7. Analysis paralysis: Running surveys without acting on results. Connect insights directly to sprint planning and roadmap decisions to ensure your Kano analysis creates tangible product improvements.

monday dev’‘s structured workflows help you avoid these traps. Built-in best practices guide you through proper analysis and ensure insights drive real decisions.

Kano model vs RICE, MoSCoW, and other frameworks

Different prioritization frameworks serve different purposes. Understanding when to use each helps you make more informed product decisions.

The Kano model uniquely focuses on customer satisfaction, while other frameworks emphasize different factors:

These frameworks complement rather than compete. monday dev accommodates multiple prioritization methods within unified workflows, letting you combine satisfaction insights with business impact and feasibility assessments. If you’re weighing agile approaches, explore Kanban vs. Scrum to see which best fits your team.

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Elevate your product strategy with monday dev

Stop letting brilliant customer insights gather dust. monday dev transforms your Kano analysis into tangible product improvements that customers actually notice. While other teams struggle with the notorious gap between customer feedback and development execution, you’ll create a seamless bridge that turns insights into action.

Imagine moving effortlessly from “customers want this” to “we built exactly that” without losing crucial context along the way. This is the difference between collecting customer opinions and delivering features that genuinely improve satisfaction scores.

Custom Kano workflows and templates

Weave Kano analysis into the fabric of your development process with monday dev’s customizable workflows. Instead of isolated spreadsheets and forgotten survey results, you’ll track features from “interesting customer insight” to “shipped and driving satisfaction.“

Create custom fields that capture exactly what matters—satisfaction categories, segment-specific reactions, and implementation priorities. Your templates standardize the approach while flexing to accommodate different products and markets.

The result? Every customer insight remains connected to actual code being written, tested, and deployed.

Real-time feature prioritization dashboards

See the complete picture with dashboards that bring Kano results to life alongside your critical product metrics. Forget about comparing satisfaction impact, technical complexity, and business value across different tools; now, you can watch them interact in real time.

When customer needs shift (and they always do), your priorities adjust automatically. New survey results or changing market conditions immediately reflect in your dashboards, keeping everyone aligned on what truly matters now—not what mattered last quarter.

Seamless integration with development pipelines

Transform customer delight from concept to reality by connecting satisfaction insights directly to your development workflow. Features flow naturally from Kano categorization into backlog refinement and sprint planning, carrying their full context every step of the way. Add a technical specification to ensure developers understand not just what to build, but why it matters to customers.

This integration creates a continuous feedback loop where you can trace every feature from initial customer need to delivered solution—and measure whether it actually improved satisfaction as predicted. What you get is beyond “just” better prioritization; it’s a product that genuinely delivers what customers value most.

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