kaizen

name	kaizen
type	skill
hint	Continuous improvement — small compounding changes beat big rewrites
version	1.0.0
tags	["transferable","improvement","iteration","retrospective","compound","incremental","waste","kaizen"]
tier	sm0l
complexity	2
description	Kaizen (改善): every process has waste; eliminate it incrementally.

What

Kaizen (改善, Japanese for "continuous improvement") teaches that every process has waste and you should eliminate it incrementally. Apply after every task: what was slow? what caused errors? what would I do differently? The retrospective is not optional — skipping it is how technical debt compounds. In code, prefer small focused PRs over big rewrites. Each PR equals one improvement.

Measure before and after — if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Three questions drive the practice: What worked? What didn't? What one thing changes next iteration?

When to Use

Use kaizen after every task, every PR, every sprint. Any time you hear "we will fix it later" is a signal that kaizen should be applied now.

How

1. After each task, ask: what was slow? what caused errors? what would I do differently?
2. Pick one improvement to implement immediately.
3. Measure the impact of the change.
4. Repeat next iteration.
5. Beware the anti-pattern: deferring improvements with "we will fix it later."