Conjoint-HoQ: A Quantitative Methodology for Consumer-Driven Design

This paper presents a methodology, Conjoint-HoQ, which is meant to provide an improvement over the current House of Quality (HoQ) tool. The improvement comes in the form of quantitative technical information — replacing the qualitative nature of the current HoQ — through integration of conjoint analysis into the HoQ framework. The steps of the Conjoint-HoQ method are presented in detail with an accompanying hypothetical example, the design of a hair dryer. A number of research issues critical to implementation in industry are also identified and discussed. The resulting methodology is representative of design tools seen as vital to supporting the emerging paradigm of mass-customization.