{"id":2080,"date":"2010-05-02T05:24:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-02T12:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=2080"},"modified":"2013-07-01T22:36:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T03:36:08","slug":"5-whys-for-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/5-whys-for-entrepreneurs\/2080\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Whys for Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>This articles presents a 5 Whys Lean Startup Example &#8211; how to apply lean to entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m delighted to see Lean Thinking applied to areas outside of &#8220;traditional&#8221; areas such as manufacturing. I&#8217;m especially happy to see Lean Thinking helpful to entrepreneurs, because I see entrepreneurs as the lifeblood of economies.\u00a0 And, the application is appropriate: startup companies have little resources to work with &#8211; Lean Thinking is especially helpful and practical in <a title=\"creativity before capital, wits before wallet, mind before money\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/mind-before-money-creativity-before-capital\/1200\/\">high-constraint environments<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, Eric Ries, shows how the the Five Whys can be applied to the startup <sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-2080-1' id='fnref-2080-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(2080)'>1<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0As an experienced\u00a0and successful entrepreneur, Ries believes that maximizing learning in a startup is critical skill that needs to be\u00a0embedded in the culture and supported by process.<\/p>\n<p>One technique he believes maximizes learning with the least amount of effort and optimizes learning is the <a title=\"5 whys, root cause analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/ask-why-five-times-about-every-matter\/382\/\">Five Whys<\/a>.\u00a0 He gives this example of the <a title=\"5 whys, five whys, root cause analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/jeff-bezos-5-why-exercise-root-cause-analysis-cause-and-effect-ishikawa-lean-thinking-six-sigma\/987\/\">5 Whys<\/a> in a software startup, <a title=\"5 whys, five whys, lean for software, root cause analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/12-questions-with-mary-poppendieck\/183\/\">Lean for Software<\/a>,<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A new release broke a key feature for customers. Why? Because a particular server failed.<\/li>\n<li>Why did the server fail? Because an obscure subsystem was used in the wrong way.<\/li>\n<li>Why was it used in the wrong way? The engineer who used it didn&#8217;t know how to use it properly.<\/li>\n<li>Why didn&#8217;t he know? Because he was never trained.<\/li>\n<li>Why wasn&#8217;t he trained? Because his manager doesn&#8217;t believe in training new engineers, because they are &#8220;too busy.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Ries then goes on to say that traditional Lean Thinking (Toyota Production System) advocates fixing the root cause only.\u00a0 This is not completely true.\u00a0 Yes, attack the root cause, but Lean Thinking does advocate preventive measures along the way to the symptom.\u00a0 In other words, Eric Ries&#8217; application of the 5 Whys is true to the Toyota approach:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Fix the Server<\/li>\n<li>Change the subsystem to make it less error prone<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"teach engineers lean thinking, software, lean for software development\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-for-software-interview-with-mary-poppendieck\/340\/\">Educate the Engineer<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Have a conversation with the manager<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Ries calls the Five Whys a &#8220;<a title=\"must have standard for there to be kaizen\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/no-standard-then-no-kaizen\/2035\/\">natural speed regulator<\/a>&#8221; &#8211; that is, the 5 Whys prevent startups from going too fast.\u00a0 This is ideal because this approach ties <a title=\"lean thinking, process control and luck, learnging, execution, results\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/process-control-and-luck\/2057\/\">progress to learning, not just to execution and results<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>It&#8217;s Your Turn<\/h2>\n<p>How have you applied the principles of Lean Thinking to your world?\u00a0 If outside of traditional areas of application (manufacturing, etc.), tell us how and where.<\/p>\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-2080'>\n<div class='footnotedivider'><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li id='fn-2080-1'> <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.hbr.org\/cs\/2010\/04\/the_five_whys_for_startups.html\">http:\/\/blogs.hbr.org\/cs\/2010\/04\/the_five_whys_for_startups.html<\/a> <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-2080-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This articles presents a 5 Whys Lean Startup Example &#8211; how to apply lean to entrepreneurship. I&#8217;m delighted to see Lean Thinking applied to areas outside of &#8220;traditional&#8221; areas such as manufacturing. I&#8217;m especially happy to see Lean Thinking helpful to entrepreneurs, because I see entrepreneurs as the lifeblood of economies.\u00a0 And, the application is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":2085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Whys Lean Startup Example<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"applying lean thinking to entrepreneurship, startup, leanstartup, and 5 whys lean startup example\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Whys Lean Startup Example\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"applying lean thinking to entrepreneurship, startup, leanstartup, and 5 whys lean startup example\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/5-whys-for-entrepreneurs\/2080\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OpEx Learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-02T12:24:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-02T03:36:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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