5 Whys
Purpose
To discover the causes of recurring problems or challenges.
When To Run This
- You want to cut through multiple issues to get to the underlying cause.
- You need to do an In-Depth Interview session to get to the human and emotional roots of a problem.
Time
30 minutes - 1 hour
Input
- The problem statement
Materials
- A team of stakeholders
- “5 Whys” template
Downloads
TheSteps
Prepare:Prepare:
Define the problem. Work with your team to create your problem statement together. This helps to bring your group together to focus on a specific challenge. Remember to keep it concise.
Write it down in the problem statement box of the template — this is your conversation starting point.
Create your team. When you’ve found the problem, find more people who can give you insights into your problem and add them to your team — these could be end users or client stakeholders.
Action It:Action It:
Start by asking broad questions. Get your team warmed up and set the context for the problem statement.
Ask the first “why”. This is usually, “why do we have this problem?” or “why is this problem occuring?”.
Discuss the responses. Find out which ones are grounded in facts and which events have actually happened.
Record their answers under your problem statement. Choose one answer, rewrite it as your second problem statement and put it into the next part of the template.
Ask “why?” 4 more times. Get the ball rolling again by asking “why is that so?”. Keep asking until you feel that your team has come to the root cause of the problem or a key insight.
Next Steps:Next Steps:
Flip your final problem statements into opportunities with the How Might We Statements method.