Applying the Kano Methodology to Meet Customer Requirements: NASA's Microgravity Science Program

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) is responsible for the development and conduct of scientific investigations in which the reduction of the effect of the gravity force is necessary for the successful accomplishment of the experiment. In the fall of 1993 the MSAD initiated an effort to define the program issues that members of the microgravity science research community felt were most important and to obtain the members feelings on those issues. This effort began with the definition of the microgravity community itself and then concentrated on the development of the questions to be asked of its members. A survey was structured using the Kano customer requirements framework. The three types of requirements (one-dimensional, must-be, and attractive) were then analyzed, and the methods of dealing with the identified concerns were developed. This represented the first time that NASA had attempted to perform such a survey among any of the communities with which it is involved. As important as the survey results were, possibly the most important results were the lessons learned regarding the accomplishment of such a survey. This article presents the development of the questions, the procedures used, the analysis of the results, the implementations developed to answer the concerns, and the lessons learned from this pioneering experience.