Tag Archives: options

Take Rates - What are the most popular product choices?

I want to apply the discussion of entropy to the features of a configurable product. But first we have to introduce the important concept of a “take rate”. In different industries this is called an “attach rate”, or a “penetration rate”. The idea is very simple: the take rate of an option is the fraction [...]

Understand product choices to manage complexity

A product is a collection of features, and each feature has alternative options. Understanding features helps determine strategies such as late staging. Some features are tangible, material things about the product: which engine, how much memory, Bluetooth. Other features are abstract or soft, like geographic region or sales channel. Among tangible features, distinctions can be [...]

Extending the product configuration to gain insight

One of the most important components in choice complexity is the product configuration itself, the mixture of product options that give a product its unique signature. Obviously the typical product orderable options are needed to analyze the complexity of a product, but other more abstract options can offer surprising insights into product and customer behaviors.
A [...]

How many choice combinations does your product have? That depends.

Possible combinations
This is a question with several answers. The easiest answer is the least useful. The number of possible build combinations, or unique configurations, is easily computed by multiplying the number of options for each feature. For example, if your product has feature A with 3 options, feature B with 2 options and feature C [...]