Critical to Quality Tree
Critical to Quality (CTQ), Trees can help to understand the quality of your customers’ eyes so you can deliver the products they want and need.
Quality is essential, whether you are developing a new product, or service, or refining an existing one. This not only benefits your customers but also ensures that you remain ahead of the rest.
However, it can be difficult to define quality. It is possible that your definition of quality might be different than your customers or your colleagues. This can lead to customers overlooking important aspects that are “must-haves”.
About CTQ Trees
Critical to Quality (CTQ), Trees are diagram-based tools that allow you to create and deliver high-quality products. They can be used to convert broad customer requirements into concrete, actionable, and measurable performance expectations.
An example of this is “improve customer services”, which is too broad for us to deal with. You can however drill down from this broad goal to more specific and measurable requirements that you have to fulfill customer needs by using a CTQ Tree.
The original purpose of CTQ Trees was to improve quality and process. CTQ Trees can be used to clarify which characteristics and qualities of products or services are essential for your customers.
CTQ Trees are able to break down customer requirements into three components:
- Customer Satisfaction – What must your product/service do to make customers happy? A donut shop may have a crucial need to deliver delicious donuts.
- Drivers You must consider quality drivers for every need. These are the key factors customers use to judge the quality of your product and service. These drivers could include “Produce fresh donuts” and “Use high-quality ingredients.”
- Requirements These are the performance requirements each driver must meet to deliver a high-quality service or product to customers. One example of the measurable requirements for a donut shop is to use packaging that keeps donuts fresh or create a regular menu with ten donuts, based on our bestseller data.
A CTQ Tree is a great way to identify each critical need. This will give you a complete list of requirements to help you deliver a product that delights customers.
How to use CTQ trees
Let’s now examine a step–by–step process that you can use for your own CTQ tree.
Step 1: Identify the Critical Needs of Your Customers
First, identify the most critical requirements that your product must fulfill to satisfy customer expectations. For each need, you identify and create a CTQ tree.
This is the first step. You’re basically asking “What are our customer’s essential needs in relation to our product/service?”
It is best to define your needs in broad terms. This will ensure you don’t miss any important details in the next steps.
This can be done by collecting as much information as possible about customers. You can conduct surveys, questionnaires, and host focus groups to gather customer-focused information. It is also a great idea to brainstorm customer requirements with people who deal directly with customers – such as salespeople and customer service personnel.
Step 2: Find Quality Drivers
Next, identify the quality drivers that must be in place in order to fulfill the needs you identified in Step 1. These are the elements that must be available for customers to ensure that your product/service meets their quality standards.
Do not rush this stage. It’s important to identify all drivers that are important for your customers.
Talk to customers and people in your company who are customer-centric.
Kano Analysis or the Five Products Levels can also be helpful since they help you identify features that will delight customers.
Step 3: Identify performance requirements
You must also identify the minimum performance requirements for each driver you have listed in Step 2. This will allow you to deliver a product that meets all quality specifications.
It is important to be aware of your limitations. There are many factors that can affect your ability and ability to meet the key quality requirements. Do you have the right technology or enough resources? What will other departments of your company need to do to meet these requirements as well?
After you have completed the CTQ Tree for each critical need you will have a list of measurable requirements you must meet in order to produce a high-quality product.
