What category does Five Whys Technique belong to?

Five Whys Technique belongs to the "Techniques" category in personal knowledge management and productivity.

What are the key topics related to Five Whys Technique?

Key topics related to Five Whys Technique include: techniques, problem-solving, thinking.

What are alternative names for Five Whys Technique?

Five Whys Technique is also known as: 5 Whys, Root cause analysis.

Five Whys Technique

Asking 'why' repeatedly to drill down to the root cause of a problem.

Also known as: 5 Whys, Root cause analysis

Category: Techniques

Tags: techniques, problem-solving, thinking

Explanation

The Five Whys is a problem-solving technique developed by Sakichi Toyoda and used at Toyota. By asking 'why' five times (or more), you drill past symptoms to find the root cause of a problem. Example: 'Why did the project fail?' → 'Requirements were unclear' → 'Why?' → 'No stakeholder interviews' → 'Why?' → 'No time allocated' → 'Why?' → 'Planning process doesn't include discovery phase.' This reveals systemic issues rather than surface symptoms. Useful for PKM when diagnosing why a system isn't working.

Related Concepts

Critical Thinking
Design Thinking
First Principles Thinking
Root Cause Analysis
Systems Thinking

← Back to all concepts