The Delight Grid plots features on functional and emotional axes, creating three categories: Low Delight (functional only), Surface Delight (emotional only), and Deep Delight (both). This model helps teams visualize and balance their product roadmap intentionally.
Instead of relying solely on demographic or behavioral data, use motivational segmentation to understand *why* users choose your product. Grouping users by their core emotional drivers (e.g., to feel productive, to feel connected) uncovers deeper needs and informs emotionally resonant features.
Reframe your market from B2B or B2C to B2H (Business to Human). This change in perspective emphasizes that whether in consumer or enterprise settings, the end-user is a person with emotional needs. This mindset makes "product delight" relevant and essential for all products, not just consumer apps.
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.
Investing in "product delight" isn't a soft initiative; it has hard ROI. Studies show that emotionally connected users are twice as likely to stay with a product and twice as likely to buy more services. They are also 60% more likely to provide referrals, creating a powerful business case.
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.
Spotify's "Wrapped," an end-of-year summary of listening habits, is a "Surface Delight" feature with little functional value. Its emotional appeal (curiosity, self-expression) led to over 20% of app downloads in 2020, proving that purely emotional features can be powerful acquisition engines.