How Apple Consistently Exceeds Customer Expectations (And How You Can Do The Same)

How to Apply the Kano Model to Build Products That Delight

Hi, this is Samuel from Enginuity 👋 This post is part of the Product Engineer track and looks at Apple's product innovation through the lens of the Kano model.

You can find all three tracks in the main menu of the Enginuity Newsletter.

---

Customer satisfaction isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity and a survival tactic.

Build something that doesn’t address your users’ needs and expectations, and they’ll move on to the next option faster than you can roll out an update. But there’s more:

Great companies don’t just meet expectations—they exceed them, and they exceed them consistently.

No one does this better in the long term than Apple. They know how to nail the essentials while pushing boundaries.

Let’s explore why delivering great products isn’t about luck but about adopting the product engineering mindset and how Apple does it with every product launch.

The Kano Model

The Kano Model is a straightforward but powerful framework for prioritizing features that matter. Features that not only satisfy customers but also delight them.

The model breaks down customer satisfaction into five categories:

1. Basic Needs (Must-Haves)

   • These are the features that users expect as a baseline. For example, in smartphones nowadays, users expect basic functionalities like making calls, sending texts, and decent battery life. And they better be flawless.

   • If your product lacks these, it’s game over. It won’t matter what else you offer.

   • But there’s a catch: Meeting these needs won’t satisfy your users. Your product must have them to be even considered as a viable alternative.

2. Performance Needs (Satisfiers)

   • These features directly impact satisfaction. The better you deliver on these, the more satisfied your customers become.

   • Returning to our smartphone example: faster processing speeds, better camera quality, and longer battery life. These are the things people will notice and appreciate. If you focus on delivering and improving performance features, you’ll consistently improve your user experience.

3. Delighters

   • Delighters are features that can really separate you from the competition. These are the innovations no one saw coming, but now they can’t live without.

   • They go beyond what users ask for—they surprise and delight, creating a lasting emotional connection. They make customers think: “This company really understands and cares.”

4. Indifferent

   • Not everything you add to a product will have an impact. Indifferent features don’t affect user satisfaction one way or the other.

   • Examples may be flashy UI elements that users don’t care about, improving features with extremely low usage, or adding new features that do not complement your product’s purpose.

5. Reverse

   • More isn’t always better. Some users might actually dislike certain features, like too many configuration options, too complex setup, or information overload on main screens.

   • Understanding what not to prioritize is just as crucial as knowing what will delight your users.

Apple's Application of the Kano Model

The Kano Model is baked into Apple’s DNA. Apple’s product engineering consistently strikes a balance between meeting expectations and delivering features that wow their customers.

1. Must-Haves

   • There are three main basic needs Apple is not willing to compromise on: reliable hardware, security, and seamless integration.

   • Whether we are talking about design and materials, Secure Enclave, FaceID, Handoff, or AirDrop, these features are present in almost every new product, and at this point, removing any of these features would highly dissatisfy their customers.

2. Satisfiers

   • These are the features that make people feel they’re getting real value for their money (and let’s be honest, Apple products don’t come at low price tags).

   • Improved camera quality, higher processing speed, or longer battery life—all these performance improvements show an understanding of customer needs, and they raise the bar where it matters most.

3. Delighters

   1. What sets Apple apart is the ability to introduce features that no one asked for, but now users can’t imagine living without.

   2. Introduction of M1 chips (Apple silicon) is the perfect example of this strategy. Moving away from Intel processors gave users unprecedented power in tasks like video editing or 3D rendering and, at the same time, changed what users thought was possible in a laptop or tablet.

The Arrow of Time

Today’s innovations eventually become tomorrow’s basic expectations.

This concept describes how Delighters can, over time, transform into Basic Needs that customers can’t live without.

When Face ID was first introduced with the iPhone X in 2017, it was a bold leap. Apple replaced the Touch ID fingerprint sensor with a facial recognition system that worked simply by looking at your phone.

At the time, Face ID was a Delighter—a feature no one had specifically asked for. Fast-forward a few years, and what was once an innovation is now an expectation.

This is the arrow of time in action. Users now take Face ID for granted. It’s a feature every iPhone must have to meet their baseline expectations.

Application to Carrer Progression

While writing this section, I remembered reading the article by

Jordan Cutler

and

Steve Huynh

: The 3 Big Mistakes That Almost Cost Me My Promotion (And How You Can Avoid Them).

In the article, they describe the concept of the “Promotion Donut”— Forgetting to fulfill your current responsibilities while aiming for promotion to the next level.

Forgetting about the arrow of time is exactly the same principle. If you focus only on Delighters (responsibilities of the next level) and forget to pay attention to Must-Haves (responsibilities of the current level), you are setting yourself up for failure in the long run.

Lessons for Product Engineers

Applying the Kano Model is about transforming your understanding of customers’ needs into actionable strategies.

💡 The "Why" Behind Development

Invest in features that contribute to and follow your vision for your product.

One of the biggest lessons Apple offers is its commitment to product development driven by purpose. Every feature has a strong “why” behind its existence.

Let’s take their M chips as an example—the motivation wasn’t only about performance. Apple wanted better control over the user experience, which is the centerpiece of their vision, by creating a much more seamless hardware-software integration.

Therefore, identify what users expect, what will improve their experience, and what will positively surprise them:

1. Start with the essentials—are there features that are missing or features that frustrate users? In many cases, you already have that data, but it’s hidden in customer support tickets, product telemetry, or past surveys.

2. Ask yourself and your team: “What could make our product’s experience faster, smoother, or more intuitive?” Look at the features that are heavily used. Even small improvements in those areas will increase customer satisfaction.

3. Dedicate (and fight for) time for experimentation and innovation. Creativity cannot be forced, and it definitely cannot expected in stressful environments and teams with low psychological safety.

🎯 User-Centric Approach

• Solving Real Problems: Many companies nowadays create features for the sake of innovation. They don’t solve real issues, just create artificial hype. Just look at all the AI-powered nonsense we are bombarded with daily. There is a place for AI and its power, but it doesn’t have to be in every product.

• User Research and Feedback Loops: Run usability testing and surveys and keep a constant feedback loop with your target audience. Don't wait for the product to be finished before collecting input. Apple is known for keeping their innovations secret, but they still listen to feedback. For example, after the criticism of the butterfly keyboard, they redesigned and re-introduced the scissor-switch keyboard in their newer models. Ideally, in your case, it won’t take as long as it took Apple.

🧭 Building Leadership Qualities

Shipping code is not everything. Great product engineers help shape the culture around them. I’ve already written about empathy in 3 Lessons for Engineers from Well-Written Product Requirement Documents, but it’s something worth re-iterating:

Leading with empathy means understanding your users and your team. Creating an environment where team members feel empowered to share their insights is key to building products that actually solve problems.

Vision-Driven Innovation

Strong leaders can articulate a vision and purpose that go beyond the immediate sprint or release cycle. They focus on the long-term impact of what they’re building.

Don’t forget that true leadership is not a formal role granted by your work title. It’s a mindset and commitment that you have towards your profession.

It’s up to each of us to create an environment in which failure is perceived as a learning opportunity that pushes toward innovation.

We must value bold ideas and customer satisfaction over bureaucracy or rigid hierarchies. We must encourage experimentation and be willing to take risks when they’re grounded in real user needs.

---

Are you looking for a space where you can learn more about software engineering, leadership, and the creator economy and network with other like-minded professionals?

With Dariusz Sadowski, Michał Poczwardowski, and Yordan Ivanov 📈, we’ve just opened the gates to a new Discord community: Engineering & Leadership

Be among the first members and join us for virtual meetups, Q&A sessions, and events:

---

📣 Top Picks

• Bottlenecks - Mental Model by

  Michał Poczwardowski
  in
  Perspectiveship

• Growing from engineer to Staff engineer and thriving by

  Gregor Ojstersek
  and
  Sidwyn Koh
  in
  Engineering Leadership

• Managing Growth and Expectations in Engineering Teams by

  Mirek Stanek
  in
  Practical Engineering Management

---