Investing in emotional connection has a quantifiable business impact. Research from firms like Deloitte and McKinsey shows emotionally connected users are twice as likely to have higher retention, referral rates, and lifetime value compared to users who are simply "highly satisfied."

Building delightful products isn't guesswork. A four-step process involves: 1) identifying functional and emotional user motivators, 2) turning them into opportunities, 3) ideating solutions and classifying them, and 4) validating them against a checklist for things like inclusivity and business impact.

True differentiation comes from "deep delight," where emotional needs are addressed within the core functional solution. This is distinct from "surface delight" like animations or confetti, which are nice but fail to build the strong emotional connections that drive loyalty.

Allocate 50% of your roadmap to core functionality ('low delight'), 40% to features blending function and emotion ('deep delight'), and 10% to purely joyful features ('surface delight'). This model ensures you deliver core value while strategically investing in a superior user experience.

While customer experience (CX) focuses on smooth transactions, customer intimacy builds deep, lasting loyalty by fostering closeness. This is achieved through empathetic actions in "moments that matter," creating powerful brand stories that resonate more than any marketing campaign.

An optimal product roadmap isn't 100% emotional features. It should be a mix: 50% "Low Delight" (core functionality), 40% "Deep Delight" (functional and emotional), and 10% "Surface Delight" (purely emotional). This framework ensures a stable, useful, and lovable product.

Structure event planning by defining what you want attendees to think, feel, and do before, during, and after the event. This framework, applied per persona, ensures every activity is aligned with specific, measurable outcomes, from initial promotion to post-event follow-up.

Delight goes beyond surface-level features. It's about creating products that solve practical problems while also addressing users' emotional states, like reducing stress or creating joy. This is achieved by removing friction, anticipating needs, and exceeding expectations.

While theories like Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) are great for identifying that products have emotional "jobs," they often lack a practical "how-to." The Delight Framework acts as an operational layer, providing tools like the Delight Grid and checklists to systematically implement and validate emotional features.