five-whys

name	five-whys
description	Trace a specific problem to systemic root causes with Five Whys. Use when investigating incidents, recurring bugs, churn, process failures, delays, or unexplained outcomes; require evidence at each step and avoid broad strategy analysis or blame-focused retrospectives.

Five Whys

Find root cause by asking why repeatedly. Focus on systems, not blame.

When to use

• Recurring problem.
• Incident or failure.
• Customer churn.
• Project delay.
• Bug with unclear cause.
• Process improvement.

Goal

• Define specific problem.
• Trace cause chain.
• Validate with evidence.
• Identify systemic root cause.
• Recommend fixes that prevent recurrence.

Rules

• Use facts over assumptions.
• Ask one question at a time.
• Stop when cause is actionable and verified.
• Go past five whys if needed.
• Avoid personal blame.
• Complex problems may have multiple chains.

Better question forms

• What was going on when this happened?
• What caused this situation?
• What led to this outcome?
• What were we trying to accomplish?
• What process allowed this?

Flow

1. State problem with metric, date, and scope.
2. Ask why it happened.
3. Answer with evidence.
4. Ask why the answer happened.
5. Continue until root cause is systemic.
6. Verify fixing root cause would prevent recurrence.
7. Propose fixes and success metrics.

Resources

• Toyota Production System
• Taiichi Ohno's Workplace Management
• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

Output

## Five Whys Analysis

Problem: [specific problem]

## Chain
1. Why? [answer + evidence]
2. Why? [answer + evidence]
3. Why? [answer + evidence]
4. Why? [answer + evidence]
5. Why? [answer + evidence]

## Root Cause
- [systemic cause]

## Fixes
- [highest impact fix]
- [supporting fix]

## Success Metrics
- [metric proving recurrence is reduced]