Importance vs. Satisfaction Assessment

One of the most effective ways to evaluate product problems is through the Importance vs. Satisfaction scale. Originally used in Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) and Jobs to Be Done, this approach is valuable on its own because it forces teams to focus on the problem space before jumping into solutions. This is critical for Product Managers, who must ensure they are solving the right problems before optimizing how they solve them.

The framework evaluates two key dimensions:

• Importance: How critical is this problem or job to the user?
• Satisfaction: How well is this problem or job currently being addressed?

Unlike a simple 2x2 matrix, the analysis results in shaped areas rather than clean quadrants. These shapes help distinguish between underserved needs (opportunities) and overserved areas (low-priority or even wasteful investments).

Key Aspects of the Model

Underserved areas (High Importance, Low Satisfaction) indicate an opportunity for innovation:

• These are the biggest opportunities for product improvement.
• Users highly value these problems, but existing solutions are inadequate.
• Example: If enterprise customers struggle with integrating data across tools and current solutions are clunky, this presents a major opportunity.

Well-served areas (High Importance, High Satisfaction) indicate table stakes:

• These are essential but already well-covered.
• Improving them further has diminishing returns.
• Example: Secure authentication in a SaaS platform—important, but if it's already seamless, further investment may not provide much competitive advantage.

Overserved areas (Low Importance, High Satisfaction) point to potential over-investment:

• These areas might be receiving more attention than they deserve.
• Resources could be better allocated elsewhere if satisfaction is high, but the importance is low.
• Example: An advanced dashboard with deep customization, but most users only need basic reporting.

Negligible areas (Low Importance, Low Satisfaction) are usually not worth prioritizing:

• Users don’t care much, and solutions aren’t great—but that’s fine.
• Unless market needs shift, these areas can be safely ignored.
• Example: A niche workflow automation feature that only a tiny fraction of users need.

Applying the Framework in Practice

Gather User Insights

To apply this framework effectively, gather structured feedback from users by conducting a survey using a 7-point scale for both dimensions:

1. Satisfaction Scale:

   • 1 = Highly frustrated
   • 7 = Super happy

2. Importance Scale:

   • 1 = Not important at all
   • 7 = Absolutely critical

When designing surveys:

• Phrase questions around the job to be done, not the solution. Instead of asking, "How satisfied are you with our analytics dashboard?", ask "How satisfied are you with your ability to get insights from your data?"
• Look for patterns, not individual scores. Outliers exist, but broad trends highlight the best opportunities.
• Supplement quantitative data with qualitative insights. Open-ended follow-ups can clarify why a problem is important or unsatisfactory.

Map the Responses

Plot average or median values you collected via the survey on a 2x2 axis so that highly important aspects show up on the right and aspects with high satisfaction show up higher:

Prioritize High-Impact Opportunities

Instead of looking at over-simplified 2x2 quadrants, look at the shapes that highlight underserved vs. overserved areas. Focus on those where importance is high but satisfaction is low.

In the diagram above, problems represented by a diamond (◆) seem most promising, while those represented by the plus sign (➕) are clearly overserved. There is a mixed assessment for those marked with the circle (⚪️) while a high satisfaction for those marked with triangles makes these less promising candidates.

A Few Important Characteristics

Importance is in the eyes of the customer.

Only users and customers can tell how important, or even critical, a problem is for them. Your assessment as a vendor and tool provider does not matter.

Satisfaction is independent of the solution.

A problem can currently be solved good enough through a completely different approach or tool. Maybe pen & paper just do the job? Don't limit the assessment to only a specific segment of tools.

Any new solution must improve satisfaction.

Remember that importance is fixed. You cannot make a problem more or less important to users—it either matters to them or it doesn’t. Therefore, when evaluating solutions, the question should always be:

If the improvement is minor, the problem might not be worth addressing—even if satisfaction is currently low. But if a solution moves satisfaction from 2 to 6 on a 7-point scale, it could be highly impactful.