Why it’s all about the whys to me.
I was definitely that annoying kid, or so my dad tells me. Always asking so many questions. In fact I remember I would get the giggles when I would start the why game up with my parents, and they didn’t even know it yet. It wouldn’t be until maybe the third why they felt maybe something was going on. And then it was usually by the fourth one that I would start laughing because the answers I thought were starting to get goofy. In reality though, it’s by that fourth or maybe fifth why that things start to get really interesting.
I didn’t know it yet but I was on to something. It’s 2020 now and a lot of years have passed but this exercise is still my go to tool when getting into a project. I can keep a straight face asking these questions now, however. It’s said that Sakichi Toyoda, who is the founder of Toyota, was the person who developed the Five Whys as a problem solving concept. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakichi_Toyoda)
For me it is at the essence of what being a product designer is.
Advantages:
Collaborative
It’s an exercise that encourages participation directly between the stakeholder and the designer. This allows time for exploration and feedback on the spot.
Simple, Easy
It doesn’t get any easier than asking and listening, however you will need to discern from the answers the cause within the answers.
Defines Relationships
At every level where there is a a cause it points to another effect, defining the relationship between the two. This allows for a map to be formed and those relationships to be better understood. It will help to get a good grasp on a project early on.
Base Level, Root Cause Analysis
Not a lot of quick exercises have the goal in mind to get so deep and heady so quickly and seemingly with ease. Although it may not be the perfect tool for all challenges it’s pretty unique in this way.
The exercise can be used in a huge variety of different ways, oftentimes it’s used within companies to discover the reason a problem has occurred. Not the direct reason perhaps, but the root underlying cause for the problem. This is done so that measures can be taken to correct that underlying issue so that it prevents the set of circumstances which existed to allow for it again. For myself in UX research and design I’ve found it to be invaluable as a tool and exercise to validate ideas and concepts. Also to help ideate solutions for users to provide a product experience that perhaps they didn’t even know they wanted yet.
Disadvantages:
Will Illuminate a Single Cause
Because of the natural flow of this process you will end up answering the final why with one answer, or the single cause. This is nice and tidy, but the truth is that life often is not as nice and tidy as we would like it and it’s quite possible that there are several causes for a problem.
Requires Participant Consent & Honesty
This exercise will require an intimate moment between the facilitator and participant(s). Depending on the problem we are looking to solve as well things could get personal, or maybe uncomfortable depending on the setting and the problem. That can be challenging in itself but we must add to that an understanding of honesty. If the participant desires they could be dishonest, which would throw the entire exercise off track and potentially an entire project. This is where validating the findings is extremely important, as well as encouragement for additional exercises, also running the exercise with multiple participants, or both if possible.
Limited By Participant Knowledge Base
The person can only answer a question honestly and fully if they have the knowledge of the full scope. If they are receiving something broken but have no idea how it broke, for instance, they can answer any questions further than that and the whys stop there..
Often Not Repeatable
Because of the many reasons that something may be happening its possible that someone or even the same person running the exercise again may come to a different conclusion than the other. This may be frustrating, however I personally find it exciting. More problems to solve!! Or maybe there’s even another why to ask that leads to them… hmm.
Here is an example from Wikipedia:
The vehicle will not start.
- Why? — The battery is dead.
- Why? — The alternator is not functioning.
- Why? — The alternator belt has broken.
- Why? — The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced.
- Why? — The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (root cause)
Typically this exercise is something that I like to do early on. It allows for me to start looking for things in a certain direction. With complex problems it will definitely get you quickly to a lot more interesting questions quickly. I suggest maybe breaking big / complex issues into parts and running exercises on them that way. Try and simplify and refine in each stage being sure not to focus on the symptoms but the cause, take more of a philosophical approach. The Five Whys can tell you an enormous amount regarding the people and the problem. It can get you thinking about a challenge and give you a fresh perspective which can lead to a lot of innovation.
While this is something that I feel is invaluable in a designers toolbox I most certainly don’t think that it’s a ‘Leathermans’ ‘ equivalent do all be all to overcoming the challenge. Factual data will be needed to analyze and validate things that are uncovered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys
Karn Bulsuk “An Introduction to 5-why”. https://www.bulsuk.com/2009/03/5-why-finding-root-causes.html
Bill Wilson “Five-by-Five Whys”. http://www.bill-wilson.net/b73
Rajesh Ghodke “5 Whys Technique UX Design” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-whys-technique-ux-design-rajesh-ghodke/
