Configuring needs analysis

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring needs analysis

    As a ServiceNow product catalog administrator, you can configure needs analysis to help agents recommend products effectively during lead or opportunity creation. Needs templates act as questionnaires guiding agents through customer needs to suggest relevant product offers. This process enhances lead and opportunity management by integrating product selection guides within the product catalog.

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    Key Features

    • Needs Templates: Questionnaires associated with product selection guides that agents use to gather customer requirements and receive tailored product recommendations.
    • Needs Decision Tree: A structured, multi-step decision process created using Decision Tree Builder. It defines questions, expected answers, decision logic, and guidance to navigate the questionnaire effectively.
    • Product Recommendations: Suggested product offerings generated based on the agent’s responses to the needs questionnaire, helping to add relevant products to leads or opportunities.
    • Decision Tree Builder: A graphical tool for constructing decision trees, allowing configuration of question nodes, decision paths, and guidances, including default Product Offering Recommendation guidance linked to product offering data.

    Configuring Needs Analysis

    To set up needs analysis in your ServiceNow environment, follow these steps:

    • Create a needs-based product offering recommendation.
    • Create and build a decision tree using Decision Tree Builder for the needs template.
    • Develop the needs decision tree by defining questions and decision paths.
    • Create a needs template and associate it with the product catalog relationship.

    Practical Benefits

    Implementing needs analysis enables agents to efficiently identify and recommend the best product offerings during sales processes, improving customer engagement and increasing the accuracy of product selections for leads and opportunities.

    As a product catalog administrator, you can create needs templates, which are questionnaires that agents use to find product offers to add to a lead or opportunity. Questionnaires function as product selection guides. When agents complete a questionnaire based on customer input, they get product recommendations that they can add to a lead or opportunity.

    Overview of needs analysis

    When agents create a lead in the Lead Management application or an opportunity in the Opportunity Management application, a product selection guide is displayed in the product catalog. The product selection guide lists the needs templates that agents can choose to get product offer recommendations.

    Figure 1. Elements of needs analysis
    Product catalog page with needs template, needs questionnaire and product recommendations in Opportunity Management, and decision tree start node in Decision Tree Builder
    Needs template
    Product selection guides associated with the product catalog display one or more needs templates. Each needs template is a questionnaire that has a set of guided questions that agents answer to get product recommendations for a customer. Each template is associated with a needs decision tree.
    Needs decision tree
    A multi-step, guided decision process that presents a series of questions to the agent. You use Decision Tree Builder to create and build the decision tree.The decision tree defines the question nodes, expected answers, connection points, decision logic, and guidance for decision paths in the questionnaire.
    Product recommendations
    The product offerings suggested for an opportunity or lead, based on the results of the needs questionnaire.

    Working with decision trees

    You configure decision trees by adding nodes, defining paths, and attaching guidances in Decision Tree Builder. This tool is a canvas for diagramming the basic elements in a decision tree, such as the question nodes and decision paths. Needs analysis provides a default guidance, the Product Offering Recommendation guidance, which references information from the Needs Based Offering Recommendation [sn_prd_pm_product_offering_recommendation] table as you create the question nodes and guidances in the decision tree.

    Before creating decision trees for needs templates, review how decision trees work:
    • - Learn the basic elements of a decision tree, such as node types, linking inputs in nodes, and decision tree paths.
    • - Review an example decision tree, including preparations for creating a decision tree, to understand the end-to-end configuration of a decision tree.
    • - Learn about the various types of answers to questions, such as Choice, Date, or Integers.

    Setting up needs analysis

    Follow these steps to configure needs analysis:
    1. Create a needs-based product offering recommendation.
    2. Create a decision tree for a needs template.
    3. Build a needs decision tree.
    4. Create a needs template and set the catalog relationship.