Attribute-Value Mapping

Learning Objectives to continue building on the previous article:

• Identify the components of an attribute-value map and describe how to construct one
• Practice connecting attributes to user values
• Analyze an attribute-value map for opportunities to iterate on a concept

Let’s explore one more SIT tool for refining concepts: attribute-value mapping.

Attribute-value mapping is a tool for comparing the objective attributes of a product, service, business model, or strategy with the subjective values of customers or end users.

An attribute is a characteristic of an innovation. For example, one possible attribute of the drill bit depicted in the following image is “It can drill a clean hole of 9/32 inches in width.” Importantly, an attribute is an objective fact that no one can dispute.

These characteristics do not need to be physical. For example, an attribute of a customer queue might be “Only three guests are admitted at once.”

A value is any gain or benefit that the consumer will receive from an innovation.

The attribute of the drill bit we just presented was “It can drill a clean hole of 9/32 inches in width.” Which of the following would you declare a value of the drill bit?

• I’m happy when I see the beautiful art it helped me hang up
• I’m satisfied with how it makes clear pathways for screws when assembling furniture

In the exercise above, I asked you to choose between two values for an attribute of a drill. This was a trick question. In reality, either value could be correct. The appropriate value would depend on whether you spend more time hanging art or more time putting furniture together.

This highlights a key difference between attributes and values: who gets to decide what they are?

Attributes are objective characteristics. They are independent of the target audience, and the customer’s experience has no effect on them. The organization decides what an attribute is. For example, an attribute for a certain car might be that it weighs 4,000 pounds.

Values, on the other hand, are the gains or benefits that the user expects. Values are subjective, and the user decides what they are. If the user changes, the values might change too. For example, a value for a certain car might be, I feel like I’m very well protected. This might connect to the attribute of a heavy car.

Making gradual connections between attributes and values will reveal where these connections are strong, where they are weak, and where they can be created.

Possible values include the following:

• I am learning more about the places around me.
• I want to get away quickly.
• I want to be surprised by the options around me.

These are just some examples, and they would depend on user research. Note that user values can be direct personal statements about how the innovation makes users feel. You can slowly “build up” from attributes to these kinds of top-level personal values, as we will explore now.

The key to attribute-value mapping is building a progressively more abstract chain of values. Let’s use Airbnb’s “Explore nearby stays” button as an example. The following table builds from the bottom, starting with a specific attribute and then moving up to statements that become progressively more connected to the user value at the top.

If you can confidently build from the concept’s attributes to users’ expected values, then the concept likely has a solid value proposition. If you cannot, then you can experiment with adding or revising attributes to better connect to values.

Yoni Stern of SIT explains more in the following video transcript.

If you look anywhere you see advertising nowadays—whether it’s online, in print, wherever it is—most of the ads you’ll see talk about features of a product. This is the best product. You should use this because it has this number of horsepower, or it works at this speed. It’s always talking about a feature of the product. That’s more frequent than not.

When you really want to make a communication—a powerful communication—you want to connect it to the value that your target market is going to receive. Now, what we’ve found is that even in cases where the communication was built around the value that the customer is going to receive, it was often at such a high level of value that people weren’t believing they would actually get that value from the product because they couldn’t see how it related.

How could you get freedom from all your worries by driving a BMW? What’s the connection between those two things? They couldn’t see the logic. And so the communications that were value-based weren’t believable.

We started to create this tool called attribute-value mapping, which is a way to figure out how we can connect attributes of a product to the values that we’re looking to create. True to the philosophy of SIT—where you’re constantly in this interplay between the markets, listening to the voice of the product, listening to the voice of the market, and back and forth—we’re looking to bridge the gap between the attributes and the values.

We have to see how an attribute can create or connect to a value that we want to communicate, and how a value that we want to communicate is grounded back to the attributes that are in the product.

As Yoni Stern said, you can build an attribute-value map in either direction—from attributes up to values, or from values down to attributes. You do this by asking different questions: “So what?” or “Why can I say that?”

Attribute-value mapping is a complicated tool, so let’s begin with a simple example. The Explore Nearby Stays feature of Airbnb’s website immediately opens a map showing nearby hosting locations. Attribute-value maps depend on the user, so this map would look different for a customer, a host, and any other target user. Let’s focus on customers.

What value does this feature create for a customer? To work up the map toward values, you ask, so what?

In this case, the feature immediately presents customers with a map of nearby Airbnb rentals.

So what?

These rentals are highly reviewed super hosts.

So what?

These super hosts offer high-value authentic experiences.

Finally, so what?

The customer value at the top might be, “I’m learning more about the community.”

This value was a powerful differentiator for Airbnb. At the time, competitors like major hotel chains focused on the comfort of a predictable experience. The experience and quality of a hotel would be the same, no matter where you were visiting.

Note that you could replicate this chain by starting with the value and then moving down by asking why can I say that? Whatever the direction, each link in the chain is a strategic objective because it creates value for the target user.

This example is just one chain of strategic objectives. A full attribute-value map will have many attributes and many values, and you will notice areas where the chains intersect. This is how you begin to analyze attribute-value maps—strategic objectives linked to multiple attributes and values are strong.

Imagine that a team is developing an attribute-value map for a new car. “Front and side airbags” is one of the attributes. After asking themselves “So what?” the team decides that the next strategic objectives, from the perspective of drivers, are “Protection from injury,” and then “Safe travel for my kids.”

Possibilities include the following:

• I feel like a responsible parent.
• I feel reassured about my children’s safety.

These possible values build from children’s safety to the subjective feelings of parents as consumers of this innovation. Are these values important to your target market? Once you have found values that are important, you can use the other ideation tools to create or refine attributes to support those values and create a stronger innovation concept.

In a full map, you will have many attributes and values, and they may connect and intersect. Let’s conclude our exploration of attribute-value mapping by returning to the redesign of New York City pay phones.

Imagine that you are evaluating a concept for pay phones. For this exercise, we will focus on Concept 2, which we explored earlier.

Concept 2 - New Device:

• Large device with an all-digital interface
• Public transportation kiosk with maps, schedules, ability to purchase fares
• Emergency information from local utilities
• Charging station
• Web browser
• Wi-Fi array
• Integrated services for local businesses (e.g., restaurant reservations)
• Digital advertising on upper screen

We have created a preliminary attribute-value map, which follows this text. The values (for tourist pedestrians, based on user research) are listed in the top row, and some attributes of the concept are listed at the bottom.

• Attributes at the bottom:
  • Wi-Fi array and charging station
  • Local services (restaurant reservations, etc.)
  • Public transportation kiosk
• Values at the top:
  • I feel comfortable navigating the city
  • I’m open to spontaneous experiences
  • I feel engaged by the device, even though I lack technical skills

The following is an example of how someone might complete this attribute-value map:

Note two important results of this exercise:

• One link in the chain, “I can relax about planning every moment of our trip,” has numerous connections leading to it and out from it. This makes it a focal point.
  • Focal point: A strategically important point in the chain that creates significant value but needs support to be executed well.
  • What does this focal point mean? For users to feel relaxed, they need to explore freely while also feeling safe and supported. Trusting the device is a risk: They don’t want to feel like they made a mistake by relying on it.
  • Adding more features to support focal points is a good way to increase the value and competitiveness of a design.
• None of the attributes connect to “I feel engaged by the device, even though I lack technical skills.” This makes it an orphan value.
  • Orphans: Attributes or values that do not connect to any strategic objectives in the map.
    • An orphan value tells you that user needs aren’t being met.
    • An orphan attribute occurs when part of the concept doesn’t deliver value to the user.

In this case, some kind of tutorial mode or help button with simple touchscreen controls might increase engagement and connect to other parts of the map. As Yoni Stern of SIT explains, it is valuable to make connections to orphan values in your innovation concept before you proceed to prototyping and implementation.

One of the things that we realize oftentimes while applying attribute-value mapping is that there is no strong connection between the value we want to communicate and the attribute that’s in the product. When this happens, we have to make a decision: we either develop additional attributes into the product, which helps with product development by guiding us toward the next product we want to develop, or we strengthen the link between the value we want to communicate and the product’s existing attributes.

These additional features become part of the next-generation product, ensuring that the connection between the value and the product is believable. Similar to the subtraction tool—when you take away something essential and suddenly realize the richness of what remains—attribute-value mapping helps uncover untapped potential in the product’s existing attributes.

Often, we discover that a system is being communicated to a particular market because we are too focused on one specific value based on a limited set of primary attributes. However, by conducting proper mapping, we realize that many attributes in a product are ignored in communication strategies.

This leads to an insightful exercise: we “interview” these attributes. If an attribute could speak for itself, what would it say to the target market? What value would it claim to provide to people out there? By listening to the voice of the product, we gain new perspectives on how it might connect with users.

Attribute-value mapping is a versatile tool. It allows us to communicate better, explore new markets, and understand how to create new products. It also helps us envision what the next generation of products should include to better align attributes with the values we aim to deliver.