Understanding and creating value are paramount in innovation and the product development process. One powerful framework for this purpose is Value Opportunity Analysis (VOA). Introduced by Cagan and Vogel in their book "Creating Breakthrough Products," VOA is a method for breaking down a product's value into specific attributes. These attributes contribute to a product's usefulness, usability, and desirability, connecting features to overall value. 

Cagan and Vogel identify seven Value Opportunity (VO) classes – emotion, aesthetics, identity, ergonomics, impact, core technology, and quality. Each class comprises several attributes, with definitions, which are qualitatively measured as low, medium, or high. This assessment allows teams to pinpoint areas where a product excels or falls short, guiding innovation efforts and highlighting opportunities for differentiation.

Image from Creating Breakthrough Products by Jonathan Cagan & Craig M. Vogel.

Adding a Dimension
VOA works well when you have 2-3 existing/competitor products that you want to assess along with your target VO attributes. However, when you have too many charts laid out side by side, or combined together into one visual, the current format isn’t as effective in analysing and communicating opportunities.

Let’s look at an example comparing five products. Here, we take the 18 attributes that were applicable to the future product and lay them out on a radial/radar graph. A hatched pattern signifies the target state, and translucent colours show the current state of each existing product. The translucency is important—when these radial graphs are superimposed—they result in a heat map that visually represents the competitive landscape across the attributes.

Interpreting the Heat Map
To make sense of this heat map, let’s create a 2x2 matrix classifying each sector based on its shade as:

• Good Opportunity: Areas where competition is sparse, but we have identified them as a target VO for our new product.

• Tough Competition: Attributes where many existing products perform well, indicating potential difficulty in differentiation.

• Low Competition: Sparse competition in areas not targeted for our new product.

• Baseline Requirement: Attributes not targeted for our new product but potentially expected by customers due to current product offerings.

Linking to Product Requirements
With our new visualisation of the VOA in place, we can more effectively categorise and prioritise product requirements. Following Cagan and Vogel, we can use a "Must, Should, Could" classification. These requirements can be mapped to their respective quadrants in the 2x2 matrix, focusing primarily on the "Must Have" requirements if you have a large number generated.

Visualising Value
By comparing multiple products and attributes simultaneously, we can more easily identify opportunities, assess the competitive landscape, and align our team's efforts. While this is just one piece of the innovation puzzle, the extended version enhances VOA’s power as a framework for creating value. This approach could be particularly useful in industries with multiple competitors or complex product ecosystems. It allows teams to quickly identify opportunity spaces in the market and potential areas for breakthrough innovation.