Rota roadmap classification
Kano model slide with three features classified
A Kano model slide is only worth showing when the placements come from a survey rather than from a workshop vote, because the whole method rests on paired questions. This one classifies roadmap features for Rota, a fictional shift planning app.
What is on the slide
- Must have
- Shift swap approvals, plotted on the curve that rises steeply and then flattens: absence is punished, presence is barely noticed.
- Performance
- Cost per shift on the grid, plotted on the straight diagonal: satisfaction rises roughly in step with how well it is delivered.
- Delighter
- A fatigue warning on rosters, plotted on the curve that stays flat and then lifts late: nobody asks for it, and it lifts satisfaction sharply once present.
- Axes and basis
- Implementation runs across the bottom, satisfaction runs up the side, and the framing line states that the placements come from a paired Kano survey of 940 managers.
When this is the right slide
A Kano curve chart suits a roadmap conversation where the question is what kind of satisfaction each feature produces, rather than how much effort it takes or how many customers asked for it.
What to swap it for
Diagram: Priority Pyramid with Callouts. Swap to the priority pyramid when the audience only needs a ranked order of features and the distinction between basic, performance and delight is not what the meeting is deciding.
What this slide shows
A title reads Kano, Rota Roadmap, with a framing line saying three features from the 2027 list, placed from a paired Kano survey of 940 managers. The body of the slide is a two axis chart: implementation runs along the bottom, satisfaction up the left side, both marked with an arrow rather than a scale. Three curves run across it. The first rises steeply from the origin and flattens near the top, which is the must have shape. The second is a straight diagonal, the performance shape. The third stays low and then lifts late, the delighter shape. A small legend sits in the upper right of the chart with three coloured swatches: must have, shift swaps; performance, shift cost; delighter, fatigue flag. The chart is drawn at a fixed aspect, so it sits centred with white space either side, and the legend overlaps the first two curves where they pass behind it.
When this is the right slide
Use it in a roadmap or scope conversation where the question is what kind of satisfaction each feature produces. Kano is most useful when a team is arguing between finishing a basic capability and building something novel, because it explains why the basic work has no upside and the novel work has no floor. It suits a product review, a user research readout or an investment case for a release. It is the wrong slide when no survey has been run: the classification depends on paired functional and dysfunctional questions, and assigning categories from a workshop gives the meeting a chart with no evidence under it. It is also wrong when the decision is really about sequencing under a deadline, where effort and impact are the axes that matter.
How to adapt it
First, run the survey before drawing the slide, and say how many people answered. Nine hundred and forty managers is a number a reader can weigh; a survey of eleven is worth stating too, because the audience will judge the classification accordingly. Second, put the category in the feature label rather than relying on the legend colour alone, since the three curves converge at the left of the chart and colour becomes hard to read at a distance or in print. Third, keep to three features, one per curve. The layout plots three shapes and the legend shows three entries, so a fourth feature is not drawn even if it is supplied, and an indifferent feature has no curve to sit on at all. When the meeting only needs a ranked list rather than a theory of satisfaction, a priority pyramid with callouts states the order plainly and takes less explaining.
What makes this slide work
The survey basis is stated in the framing line
Placed from a paired Kano survey of 940 managers. Kano classification comes from asking each respondent a functional and a dysfunctional question about the same feature, and the categories only mean anything when that has been done. A slide that shows the curves without saying where the placements came from is presenting a workshop opinion in the clothing of a method.
Each feature is named with its category
Must have: shift swaps. Performance: shift cost. Delighter: fatigue flag. The legend carries the classification rather than leaving the reader to infer it from which curve a colour sits on, which matters because the three curves are close together at the left of the chart and the colours alone would be ambiguous at a distance.
Three curves are enough to teach the shape
One curve that rises fast and flattens, one straight line and one that lifts late. Those three shapes are the whole argument of the model: doing more of a must have stops paying, doing more of a performance feature keeps paying, and a delighter pays suddenly. Adding a fourth indifferent feature would put a flat line on the chart that says nothing.
Questions people ask
What survey does a Kano classification need?
A paired question set: for each feature, how the respondent would feel if it were present and how they would feel if it were absent. The combination of the two answers assigns the category. Asking people to rate importance on a five point scale produces a different and weaker result, and it cannot separate a must have from a performance feature.
How many features belong on a Kano slide?
Three, one for each curve, which is what this layout plots. A longer classification belongs in a table with a column for the category and one for the survey counts. The chart's job is to explain the three shapes of satisfaction, and it stops doing that once the legend fills with entries that share a curve.
Why does a must have feature have no upside?
Because its absence is punished and its presence is expected. Shift swap approvals is the example here: managers said its absence alone would stop them renewing, and nobody praises a product for having it. That asymmetry is the practical value of the model, since it explains why polishing a basic capability rarely moves satisfaction.
Do delighters stay delighters?
No, they decay. A feature that surprises people this year becomes expected within a few release cycles and eventually behaves like a must have. That is why a Kano classification carries a date and gets rerun, and why a roadmap built entirely on last year's delighters tends to under invest in the basics that have quietly moved.
When should a Kano slide be replaced by a prioritisation matrix?
When the decision is about capacity rather than about kind. Kano says what sort of satisfaction a feature produces; it says nothing about how long it takes to build. Teams usually need both, with Kano framing the discussion and an effort and impact grid making the sequencing call afterwards.
How should a Kano slide be presented out loud?
Explain the three shapes once, in about thirty seconds, then name the feature on each curve and what it implies for the release. The curves are generic and the audience will grasp them quickly. The part worth the time is why the fatigue warning lifts satisfaction despite nobody having asked for it.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
Make one like thisOther slide examples
Fishbone diagram slide with six cause families
A fishbone diagram earns its place when the effect at the head is a measured number and each bone carries causes rather than blame. This one lays out why deliveries run late on the northern run at Greenway Logistics, a fictional carrier.
Category matrix slide with five categories across four seasons
A category matrix slide puts a whole range on one page by crossing categories with a second dimension and writing one short line in each cell. This one maps the range of Corriemoor Outdoors, a fictional retailer, by season, so buyers can see what leads each category from summer to spring.
OKR slide example with two objectives and measurable results
An OKR slide only works when each key result carries a baseline, a target and a name, because a result without those three is a wish with a number attached. This one sets a quarter for Fieldnote, a fictional farm record keeping app.
Want the steps in the builder? Read Add charts, maps and diagrams to slides, then Style text and add callouts, stats and lists. For everything this generator can do, see the slide maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .