41–50 of 172 posts
"Why" is my favorite question. It's also the most important and leads to solutions for 9/10 problems if you just keep asking it. Stop when you get to the root cause that you can fix (not some arbitrary number like 5).
I don't force it 5x but asking why was the best lesson I learnt working with users/clients as people tend to talk about solutions and not the problems. That's also where my nickname comes from.
I don't force it 5x but asking why was the best lesson I learnt working with users/clients as people tend to talk about solutions and not the problems. That's also where my nickname comes from.
This is why i don't like tender-based software projects. The tender already describes the features needed, and they must be built even if they are suboptimal for the problem domain.
Can you package that message up and sell it as a consultancy?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you have the assumption that all behaviour that you don't disagree with has a cause of underlying unhappiness? Some people enjoy things that other people don't approve of.
And also why do some people enjoy things that other people don't approve of?
A very good approach. Frequently talked about, rarely applied.
I find it hard to figure out if I'm only finding the answer I'm looking for. Apply 5 whys to "Why did Snowden leak classified information?" I can think of multiple directions it can go: "he's a traitor who managed to get around security policies", "the US spies too much", and "contractors aren't covered under internal whistleblower protections so leaking was the most likely way to get things to change."
For example, I think that you are jumping down too far with your first responses. Snowden leaked because:
1) he had access to it - exploring the why's here will improve your security
2) he was appalled at what he saw - exploring why's here will lead to discussion of whether he was right
I've never seen a methodology burn through more easel pads.
That's a really valuable lesson learned from The Lean Startup :-)
This method was invented by https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakichi_Toyoda . He died in 1930. I'm pretty sure that it predates even the word "startup" as it is currently used :)
A very good approach. Frequently talked about, rarely applied.
I find it hard to figure out if I'm only finding the answer I'm looking for. Apply 5 whys to "Why did Snowden leak classified information?" I can think of multiple directions it can go: "he's a traitor who managed to get around security policies", "the US spies too much", and "contractors aren't covered under internal whistleblower protections so leaking was the most likely way to get things to change."
This is called 五回のなぜ in Japanese ("Go-kai no naze," or Why Five Times) and refers to root cause analysis. Of course the number of times the process need be repeated until the root cause is identified is variable. Five in this case is merely a jingly mnemonic, as Japanese people are so fond of.