5 Whys Method

The world’s leading companies, such as Apple, Google, and Samsung, are already using the design thinking approach—because they know it’s the way forward when it comes to innovation and product success. The 5 Whys method is an extremely simple method you can use to dig deep into your users and uncover useful insights about their behavior. Quite literally, it requires you to ask your users “Why?” whenever they explain something to you. Each time you ask “Why?”, you will prompt them to re-evaluate their position and dig a little deeper into their own reasoning.

It may seem a bit odd to keep asking “Why?” at first, but rest assured it will uncover great insights about your users and will allow you to dig deeper to find the root cause(s) of their behaviors. Even if you think you already know the answer, you should still ask your users “Why?”—their reasons might surprise you! The more you practice the 5 Whys method, the more you’ll get used to this idea, and the more comfortable you’ll feel asking your interviewees or users “Why?”. The 5 Whys method was originally invented by Toyota, who used it for root cause analysis.