220. How 5 simple questions can solve your toughest problems

0:00 Introduction

02:46 Five Whys Methodology

06:05 Applying the Five Whys: Bakery Example

08:51 Applying the Five Whys: App Development Example

12:01 Effective Use of the Five Whys

13:53 Conclusion 

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Transcript

Sophia Matveeva (00:00.236)
Have you ever wondered why some people find smart innovative solutions to problems and others just stay stuck? Well, in this episode, I'll show you a simple technique that innovators use to make new products and solve business challenges. And you can also use this methodology for any area of your life. So listen up.

Sophia Matveeva (00:27.596)
for the Tech for the Techies podcast. I'm your host, tech entrepreneur, executive coach at Chicago Booth MBA, Safiya Matheer. My aim here is to help you have a great career in the digital age. In a time when even your coffee shop has an app, you simply have to speak tech. On this podcast, I share core technology concepts, help you relate them to business outcomes,

And most importantly, share practical advice on what you can do to become a digital leader today. If you want to have a great career in the digital age, this podcast is for you. long but good. And then I listened to two biography summaries about Napoleon on the Founders podcast. And I do recommend this as a pastime actually, especially if you're feeling a bit like the world is against you, you're feeling sorry for yourself and maybe you just can't get things done. Because I have found studying him to be very energizing. And now, my dear smart listener, I have a question for you.

Have you listened to a few episodes of this podcast and not yet subscribed? If the answer is yes, and if you want to have a great career in the digital age, then hit that subscribe button now. We have shows on how to innovate at a corporate, on how to know when to pivot your venture, and we also have a guide on when to use AI and when to avoid it like the plague coming up. So it is going to be so interesting.

And so useful, you're getting high quality education here for free. So you need to subscribe and to tell your friends. And today I have a lesson for you that's going to help you to become a great problem solver. So obviously if you're a founder or if you want to innovate at a corporate, you have to know the process that I'm going to teach you today. But if you're not doing either of these things, think about it. Do you have any problems?

Sophia Matveeva (02:46.73)
If you don't have any problems, can you please get in touch with me because I want to know how you have created a problem free life. So basically I honestly think that what I'm going to teach you today is useful for everybody. Today you are going to learn about the five wise technique. So think about a problem that you have faced that has just seemed unsolvable or think about when you created a solution that just didn't quite work.

I mean, we've all been there and this often happens because we address surface level issues and don't dig deeper to find the root cause. And that's where the five whys come in. So what are the five whys? It is a problem solving technique developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries. So obviously he did quite well. But this technique has now basically become global. Now this methodology is taught at business schools and used by innovators worldwide.

The methodology is now used within production systems that you might've heard of. So if you've heard of Kaizen, lean manufacturing, lean construction and Six Sigma, this Five Y's process is embedded into all of them. And if you've never heard of these systems, or you've heard of them and you don't know what they are, don't worry about it. Today we're focusing on the Five Y's, not in Six Sigma. So the concept is really simple. When you encounter a problem, ask why

five times to get to the core issue. And I'm going to show you this with two examples. One is going to be non -technical and the other one is going to be about app development. But first, let's think about bread. Imagine that you are running a bakery and your customers are complaining that their bread is often stale. Honestly, this would be a crime if you were in France.

And instead of just assuming that you need to bake more bread more frequently, let's apply the five whys and see what happens. So why is the bread stale? Because it's not selling fast enough. Second why? Why isn't it selling fast enough? Well, because customers aren't buying as much as we expected. Hmm, interesting. Why number three? Why aren't customers buying as much?

Sophia Matveeva (05:08.29)
Because they say our varieties are limited. Why number four? Well, why are our varieties limited? Well, because we haven't updated our menu in years. Maybe we don't have sourdough and that's what everybody wants these days. Why number five? Well, why haven't we updated our menu? Because we haven't been tracking customer preferences and market trends. So you see how in this simple example, we've gone from stale bread

to realising that we need a better system for giving customers what they want, i .e. for innovating our menu. Now, I'm not saying that stale bread is not a problem in itself and that it can't be solved with surface level actions like maybe changing the composition of the flour or packaging in which you store the bread. But surface level solutions, while they can be really good, they only take you so far because imagine that there are two bakery chains.

Which of these chains is going to be more competitive? The one that tracks consumer tastes and adapts to them or the one that doesn't bother with consumer trends but focuses only on the packaging. So you see how for long term success, you have to do root cause analysis. And this is also why strategy departments love the five wise process.

Now let's move away from the wonderful world of carbs and apply this process to something that happens very frequently in digital innovation. And this example is about app developers missing deadlines. So are you still with me? Let's do this. So in this scenario, we have an app development team, which is consistently missing project deadlines. And now we're going to use the five wise process.

to figure out what's going on and to find a solution that we want to test. So why number one, why is the team missing project deadlines? Because the development process is taking longer than estimated. Why number two, why is the development process taking longer than estimated? Well, because unexpected bugs and issues are frequently arising during development. So there were lots of problems and lots of unexpected bugs. Hmm.

Sophia Matveeva (07:22.53)
Why number three, why are unexpected bugs and issues frequently arising? Well, because the initial planning and requirement gathering phase wasn't thorough enough. Hmm. Why number four, why was the initial planning and requirement gathering phase not thorough enough? Because the team is rushing to start coding to meet aggressive timelines set by management. okay. This is getting interesting. We're getting deeper.

So why number five? Why is the team rushing to start coding to meet these aggressive timelines? Because there's a misunderstanding between management and the development team about the complexity of the project and the time needed for proper planning. So what's the root cause that we have uncovered here? Well, the root cause seems to be a gap in communication between the management and the development team about how complex this project is and how important it is to take your time to plan. And by the way, this happens all the time. It even happens in experienced and successful engineering companies and nobody is immune to this because honestly, I hear both engineers and business managers complaining to me about this so, so frequently. So what solution can we find using the Firewise process right now?

Well, how about this? Implement a more collaborative project scoping process that involves both management and the development team. And so what does this mean in practice? So for example, this could include educational sessions for the business management team on the software development life cycle. And that would usually be done by tech for non -techies. That's what we do. And also what else do you need to do? Well, how about creating a standardized thorough planning phase and including a planning phase into all project timelines. So essentially no project just starts with coding. Every project has planning at the start. And if this is happening in your company, don't just think, okay, I've learned this on the Tech for non -techies podcast. I'm just going to start with this standardized planning right now. You need to do the five Y's because maybe your root cause is different. So maybe your developers are missing deadlines.

Sophia Matveeva (09:50.69)
but maybe the reason, the core reason is different. So even if the solution I've just given you sounds attractive, don't jump to it without actually doing analysis first. Now you might be thinking, do I always have to ask exactly five questions? It seems kind of arbitrary. Well, you don't actually have to go with five. Sometimes you might find your root cause in three wise. Sometimes it might take a bit more. So maybe you need seven.

But the key is to keep digging until you've uncovered the fundamental issue. And once you've mastered the why questions, you can move up level and you can start adding how questions and adding them intermittently to why questions like how does that work? Why is it like that? And while you don't have to be too rigid, it doesn't have to be just five whys. You can add hows. It can be three questions.

The main thing is don't ask yes or no questions. So don't ask questions that you can only get a yes or no to because that really just stops the flow of thinking. So my recommendation to you is if you've never done this before, just stick to the methodology before you start embellishing. So first try only using the five Y's and then when you've mastered this, then start embellishing with hows and different numbers of questions. That's advanced level stuff.

You might be thinking, well, why should I care about this technique? Well, I like it because it's super versatile and you can use it in business. You can use it in your personal life. You can use it in product development. So basically anywhere where you have problems. It's also a great way to avoid jumping to conclusions and playing the blame game because you know, in the example that I gave you about the the engineers missing deadlines is just so tempting to just rage at the engineers for missing deadlines. But that actually wouldn't really solve the problem and it would just make your engineers mad and it would make them leave you and you might not want that. And also if you use the five wise consistently, you will be more innovative. You will come up with breakthrough innovations because by understanding the root cause of an issue, you open up new possibilities that you might have never considered otherwise.

Sophia Matveeva (12:01.56)
So now let's talk about how to effectively use the five whys. Number one, start with a clear problem statement. So where is your starting point? Is it stale bread? Is it developers missing deadlines? Is it good people leaving your team? So where are you starting? Then gather a team with different experiences and viewpoints if you're tackling a complex issue. And this is where a moderator like Tech for Non -Techies can be really useful.

Because if everybody looks the same and has the same background, you're in danger of group think. And this is why at Tepfon & Tekis, we actually get brought in to teams to take them through the five whys process. Because if you are working with the same people all the time, you are probably starting to think like each other. So sometimes you really do need an external person to help you think wider. Then the next point, ask why and be prepared to be honest.

And sometimes just be prepared to hear uncomfortable answers. And this is especially if you are the leader of the project and you're going through this process. Sometimes it will hurt and you'll really want to be defensive. And I get it. I have an ego too. Have you noticed? But honestly, it is better that your ego gets a bit bruised in this, you know, quite private process than if you just ignore the problems and then you take out a product or a marketing strategy into the marketplace and it completely bombs because that will hurt your ego more. For each answer that you get, drill deeper by asking why again and keep going until you reach a root cause that you can actually start addressing. And remember that the goal isn't to place blame. It can be really tempting to think, yes, we found out it's your fault and you are bad.

You who would just say, yes, it's your fault and you're bad. What are we going to do with that? The aim is to find solutions and not to just get angry. Keep an open mind and be prepared to challenge your assumptions. So as we wrap up, I'm going to leave you with a challenge because you're an ambitious person and you want to implement what you're learning. So pick a problem that you're currently facing, personal or professional.

Sophia Matveeva (14:19.622)
and give the five whys a try. you know, as I am actually saying this to you, there's a big problem that I've been really struggling to face. So actually I'm going to use the five whys and it's going to be uncomfortable, but I'm going to do it because it works. So do it with me, do this challenge with me and tell me how you use this process. actually, I actually really do want to hear from you. and I want to know how you're using the lessons that you are learning on this show. The best place to contact me is on LinkedIn or via the details in the show notes. And so my dear smart person, that's all for today's episode on the Tech from Techies podcast. I am Sophia Matveva reminding you that sometimes the most powerful question you can ask is simply why. You can be that annoying child at the back of the car going, but why?

Why? If you enjoy this episode, which I assume you did because you're still here, then please leave the show a rating and a review. Honestly, it really does help people like you discover this show. And also it helps me keep going and creating this work for you. So thank you in advance, my dear smart people. Have a wonderful day and I shall be back with more lessons in your delightful smart years next week. Ciao.