Configuring needs analysis

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring needs analysis

    As a product catalog administrator, you can createneeds templates—questionnaires that agents use to identify suitable product offers for leads or opportunities. These questionnaires act as product selection guides, helping agents recommend products based on customer input within the Lead Management or Opportunity Management applications.

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    When agents create a lead or opportunity, the product catalog displays a product selection guide listing available needs templates. Each needs template is tied to a structured decision-making process called a needs decision tree, which guides agents through questions to generate tailored product recommendations.

    Key Features

    • Needs Templates: Questionnaires containing guided questions agents answer to receive product recommendations for customers.
    • Needs Decision Trees: Multi-step guided decision processes created using the Decision Tree Builder. They define question nodes, expected answers, decision paths, and guidance to drive recommendation logic.
    • Product Recommendations: Suggested product offerings for leads or opportunities based on questionnaire outcomes.
    • Decision Tree Builder Tool: A visual canvas to configure decision trees by adding nodes, defining paths, and attaching guidance, including default Product Offering Recommendation guidance linked to relevant data tables.

    Configuration Steps

    To set up needs analysis, follow these key steps:

    • Create a needs-based product offering recommendation.
    • Build a decision tree tailored to a needs template using Decision Tree Builder.
    • Create a needs template and associate it with the product catalog.

    Practical Insights for ServiceNow Customers

    This configuration enables your agents to efficiently guide customers through product selection, ensuring recommendations are relevant and aligned with customer needs. By leveraging decision trees and needs templates, you can standardize and automate complex product recommendation processes, improving lead and opportunity conversion rates.

    Before building decision trees, review foundational concepts such as decision tree elements, example configurations, and question answer types to ensure effective setup.

    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:

    Setting up needs analysis