What is opportunity scoring?
Opportunity scoring focuses on feature development by finding aspects that consumers value but are undeveloped or unsatisfactory.
You might conceive of opportunity scoring as a comparison of significance and enjoyment. Opportunity scoring provides a critical opportunity to mitigate this risk and aim toward a higher return on investment.
The History of Opportunity Scoring
Tony Ulwick, an innovation consultant and the founder of Strategyn, is the originator of opportunity scoring (as product teams currently use it). In particular, opportunity scoring is drawn from the outcome-driven innovation (ODI) technique established in the 1990s and has been used since.
The user-centric approach of opportunity scoring is closely linked to the Jobs To Be Done methodology, which was developed by Ulwick and is another of his creations. To maximize a product’s value, you must consider the user’s goals and desired outcomes. For example, an application that empowers users to obtain the employment they seek will have value in their life.
It is possible to add a layer to JBTD by utilizing opportunity scoring. This allows teams to learn first-hand about their customers and what they want to achieve, rather than relying on the audience to describe the theoretical features they would like to see implemented in the first place.
The Importance of Opportunity Scoring
Opportunity scoring focuses on the aspects that users consider the most significant and satisfying. By applying the findings, teams will be able to devote more time and resources to those features that require improvement.
As a result, you will be able to improve the user experience, raise happiness, increase retention, and attract newcomers to the organization. Moreover, Customers purchase a product because it has the potential to address their issues; yet, if they — or the users for whom they bought the product — find that it does not meet their expectations, they may choose to switch to a different provider.
The Benefits of using Opportunity Scoring
It saves time
Instead of investing months in aspects that are either unimportant or unpleasant, they can customize features to consumers based on essential feedback, eliminating the risk and expense of devoting months to elements that are either unimportant or undesirable (or both).
It helps solve problems
Product teams will be able to concentrate on innovations that solve current problems and give users features that assist them in achieving their intended outcomes as effectively as possible. Utilizing cutting-edge email automation software, you can create tailored email marketing campaigns to increase your conversions.
It helps answer the audience’s needs
The greater the degree to which a product meets its target audience’s requirements, objectives, and expectations, the greater the likelihood they will be satisfied. Product teams can respond to customer feedback and make essential adjustments due to opportunity scoring, allowing them to personalize a product for more significant ROI.
It helps a company to become better informed
Opportunity scoring is about listening and acting rather than guessing or telling consumers what they want.
It is possible to repeat the opportunity scoring process across other goods, markets, and user types in the future. Companies can constantly improve products based on user feedback to ensure that the most important and valuable elements are prioritized over the rest of the product.
How To Use Opportunity Scoring
Product teams can conduct opportunity scoring by soliciting input from members of the target audience who are familiar with the product. The next step is to distribute a survey in which customers are asked to score several product features in order of priority before assessing their level of satisfaction with each element.
Choosing a number between 1 and 5 can be as simple as selecting one from a list — and teams should attempt to make the process as simple as possible for participants. When customers pick the features and outcomes that they find the most satisfying, they are advising product teams on where to direct their creative talents and financial resources.
You can apply for work in progress to any features that have received a high importance rating but a low satisfaction rating.
The time, money, and resources invested in improving (or implementing) these critical aspects would yield a positive return on investment. Product teams must keep in mind that as a manager, you must factor in the cost of capturing opportunities and filling gaps before beginning work.
It may be necessary to devote a significant amount of time and resources to improving specific features.
Still, if these features are low on the priority list, product managers will need to consider whether such commitments will be worthwhile in the long run.
A feature with a poor user satisfaction rating and a high level of unimportance among most users may be retained (if it is not causing any harm) or removed entirely by the development team. Even though this appears to be counterproductive, improving more vital aspects will still result in a superior product in the long run.
As part of the regular opportunity scoring procedure, teams treat the ratings attributed to a feature’s importance and satisfaction the same way they would any other rating.
ODI approach – a useful tool for Opportunity Scoring
Instead of asking survey participants to rate features, surveys that adopt a pure-bred version of Tony Ulwick’s ODI approach may ask them to place the most significant outcomes rather than the elements themselves.
Ulwick’s ODI method focuses on the desired outcome and allows product teams to double the value placed on customers’ important ratings about their satisfaction scores. This is why it is vital to have a thorough understanding of the aims and motivations of users.
The ODI formula
Finally, To identify the most valuable chances for upgrading a product, you should use the following ODI formula:
Opportunity equals importance plus max (importance minus satisfaction, 0).
Another equation follows, which is as follows:
Opportunity equals the sum of importance plus (importance – pleasure).
As with the conventional model, you should focus on those features or user outcomes that have the most significant potential to increase customer happiness in the shortest amount of time.
Conclusion
Opportunity Scoring can help product teams identify which features or outcomes should be prioritized for development or renovation when building or revamping a product. In this way, developers may verify that their efforts are aligned with user preferences and goals rather than assuming they know what users want or anticipate from a product.
