. I've written about this before in some detail, but this was an opportunity to try and frame it for a general business audience. After all, Five Whys is the most general, most transferable technique in the toolkit, because it can act as a natural speed regulator for any kind of work. (If you're curious about the theory behind this idea, see Work in small batches.) The Five Whys for Start-Ups - The Conversation - Harvard Business ReviewRead the rest of The Five Whys for Start-Ups.
Root cause analysis and preventive maintenance are concepts we expect to see in a factory setting. Start-ups supposedly don't have time for detailed processes and procedures. And yet the key to startup speed is to maintain a disciplined approach to testing and evaluating new products, features, and ideas. As start-ups scale, this agility will be lost unless the founders maintain a consistent investment in that discipline. Techniques from lean manufacturing can be part of a startup's innovation culture.
One such technique is called Five Whys, which has its origins in the Toyota Production System, and posits that behind every supposedly technical problem is actually a human problem. Applied to a start-up, here's how it works....
You can view previous essays in this series here:
