SYNTHESIS / ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE

96 Value Opportunity Analysis

Value opportunity analysis maps the extent to which a product’s aspirational qualities align to people’s idealized lifestyle or fantasy version of themselves.¹

When the virtues associated with a product are meaningfully aligned with their values, customers are happy to pay a higher price for the perceived improvement that the product makes to their quality of life. Many of today’s products, services, and systems are intentionally designed with aspirational qualities that help people connect to an idealized lifestyle. The connection between a product’s attributes and the perceived improvement in one’s lifestyle is derived from how we have come to define “value,” and help us decide what products meet our definition of excellence.

A technique that can be used to identify the aspirational attributes in a product or service is the Value Opportunity Analysis (VOA). A VOA provides you with a list of value-based criteria, or value opportunities, that can help design teams consider the degree to which a product connects with an audience. The seven value opportunities (and their attributes) are:²

1. Emotion: adventure, independence, security, sensuality, confidence, power

2. Aesthetics: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, taste

3. Identity: point in time, sense of place, personality

4. Impact: social, environmental

5. Ergonomics: comfort, safety, ease of use

6. Core Technology: reliable, enabling

7. Quality: craftsmanship, durability

The VOA can be used to help the team consider the results from multiple angles:³

• Competitive Review. One of the best uses for the VOA is that it can be used to measure how your product stacks up to a competitor’s product in terms of perceived value to the audience.

• Market Analysis. Use VOAs to assess the products in your category that are wild successes. Then, assess the failed products. What can you learn from them? Make recommendations that help you build off others’ past successes, and avoid repeating the missteps.

• Multiple Personas. VOAs can be applied to a product from the points of view of several personas. The analysis can help you identify whether different user needs are being met.

A VOA exercise provides an opportunity for the team to come together to do the ratings, and it will often generate great discussion among members. However, it is critical that the design team and stakeholders who attend the exercise work from a place of deep understanding and empathy, grounded firmly in research, of what the user values and desires.

1. John Cagan and Craig Vogel introduce the value opportunity analysis for identifying product opportunities in their book Creating Breakthrough Products, Prentice Hall, 2002.

2. See note 1 above.

3. See note 1 above.

4. See note 1 above.

To apply a VOA to a product, first list each value opportunity and its attributes in a column, and then rate each on a subjective scale of low, medium, and high. Depending on your product or service, you may find that some values may not apply to your product; in this situation, simply indicate that there is a “low” measure of success. No rating would indicate failure, or a mindful decision to not pursue the value attribute.⁴ The example below shows a value opportunity analysis for child backpack carriers for hiking.

Traditional child backpack carrier for hiking VOA.

State-of-the-art child backpack carrier for hiking VOA.