Every product developed aims to fill a specific customer need, but pinpointing what customers actually need is more difficult than it seems. Without a clear understanding of the customer’s pain points, the development process can become bloated, misguided, or simply doomed from the start. Show
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a methodology created in response to this problem: It’s focused on providing a clear framework for addressing customer needs, beginning with a matrix called the House of Quality. Read on to learn more about QFD and how our House of Quality template can help you develop a product that resonates with customers. What’s quality function deployment?Quality function deployment. It’s a very technical-sounding name for a process that essentially helps businesses integrate the Voice of the Customer (VOC) into product development. This methodology can provide many benefits—it will help you:
As you can see, each aspect of the QFD is pointed toward the same “north star”—what your organization understands as your customers’ needs, based on feedback from surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc. Those customer needs are the directions your organization must follow to develop a successful product. Phases of the QFD processThe entire QFD process is much more involved than we’ll get into in this article, but here are the basic steps:
What is the House of Quality?The QFD House of Quality may sound like a French couture designer, but it is actually a voice of the customer analysis tool. Through multiple factors, including competitor research and the level of importance of each customer need, you can determine which product specifications take priority. How to use the House of Quality templateLet’s walk through the process of putting together a House of Quality example for a company building a new smartphone. 1. Add customer needs and ratingsOn the left side of the House of Quality, you’ll enter the most important customer needs based on your research. For instance, in this House of Quality example, customers care about the following qualities when shopping for a smartphone:
Next to the customer needs you have listed, rate how important each of the requirements are on a scale of 1 to 5. Customers may rate several traits of high importance, so it’s okay to have multiple 5s or multiple 4s. Ratings don’t have to be whole numbers either. To the right, you’ll calculate the percent of customer importance rating for each requirement. Take the rating given to a requirement (1 to 5) divided by the total of all ratings. 2. List design requirementsHorizontally above the relationship matrix, you’ll add design requirements for the product, such as weight, cost of production, and operating system. 3. Weigh the relationship between customer needs and design requirementsIn the relationship matrix, you’ll identify how strongly each of the design parameters affects the customer need. Use the following symbols: As an example, if customers would like a less expensive smartphone, the cost of production will strongly contribute to the price. The operating system, battery, and glass used in the product will also affect the overall cost to customers, but not as strongly. Once you have filled the relationship matrix, you can add the importance rating and percent of importance for each design requirement. To calculate the importance rating, multiply the percent of importance rating with the relationship score for each customer need. (In our example, “size” has a 4% customer importance rating and a 9 relationship score, so the total would be 0.36.) Add those totals together for the importance rating. After you calculate all the importance ratings, you can take each rating divided by the total for your percentages. The requirements with the highest importance ratings or percentages are likely the features that your company should prioritize or invest in more. 4. Complete the correlation matrixThe correlation matrix will determine how design requirements help and hinder each other. Above each design requirement, you’ll mark whether it’s better for the feature to be lower (down arrow) or higher (up arrow). For example, it would be preferable for the weight of a smartphone to be lower, so the example includes a down arrow. On the other hand, it would be preferable for the battery to be higher (last longer), so the House of Quality example includes an up arrow. These ratings are up for interpretation. Based on these up and down symbols, you’ll determine the correlation between different design requirements. Use the correlation matrix legend to designate these relationships using the appropriate symbol (placed in the square between two features): For example, the operating system will greatly affect the expected life of the smartphone. Since both have up arrows, the two features have a strong positive correlation. 5. Add competitor researchFinally, the competitive assessment shows how companies currently rank for each of your customers’ needs so you can determine what has been overlooked and how you can gain the advantage of your competition. The correlation matrix and competitor research do not affect the importance ratings, but they do provide additional insight to help you weigh which customer needs and design requirements matter most. That’s it! Your House of Quality is now complete. This will be your guiding matrix for determining what your product absolutely must have to appeal to your customers’ needs and wants. It will also be a useful tool in documenting the Voice of the Customer and keeping all processes on track throughout production. Why do teams use QFD?QFD and the House of Quality might seem like too much work—why does your team need to go through the arduous process of determining customer needs and developing toward needs? We’ve got the answer. QFD is a good option if any of the following apply to your business:
Consider, too, that the longer it takes to develop a product and bring it to market, the more resources are invested in development. It is only a benefit to your organization to make the development process faster and more efficient. With Lucidchart, you can begin using QFD and start building your House of Quality faster. Using our free templates, you can create a House of Quality that is always updated in real time and can be easily shared with anyone in any department in seconds. What is the main part of the house in the House of Quality used for?The House of Quality is used mainly in the Product Planning and Design phase and consists of a correlation matrix that is usually roof shaped and is found at the top of the main part of the matrix.
What is the concept of House of Quality?Quality Glossary Definition: House of Quality. The House of Quality (HOQ) is defined as a product planning matrix that is built to show how customer requirements relate directly to the ways and methods companies can use to achieve those requirements.
What is House of Quality with examples?House of quality – the process explained
The first and often most important matrix in QFD is called the house of quality because it's shaped like a house with a roof and body. In this matrix, you start by separating customer needs from technical requirements and evaluating the two factors independently of each other.
What is the first step in building the House of Quality?Developing a house of quality goes through six steps. The first step is identifying the customer requirements. This stage entails establishing, elucidating and detailing customer's needs. Establishing of customer needs entails translating the customer's wish into some tangible value.
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