The 5 Whys: Root Cause in 5 Questions
When problems pop up, teams often fix symptoms, not causes. The 5 Whys solves that. How it works: Ask “Why?” 5 times until you uncover the root issue. Example: 1. Why did users churn? → Because they didn’t finish onboarding. 2. Why didn’t they finish? → It was too long. 3. Why was it too long? → We added too many steps. 4. Why so many steps? → Each team wanted their field in. 5. Why did that happen? → No one owned onboarding as a single experience. Root cause: Lack of ownership. Solution: Assign an owner. 👉 Have you ever dug into a problem with the 5 Whys?