When I first arrived at Intuit, everyone was talking about Process Excellence, which was Intuit’s phrase for Six Sigma. There was a lot of GE influence in the company and it seemed as if that the time that you had to walk the talk and be at least a Green Belt to get promoted. One of my first projects was to work with a Black Belt, a team leader who was responsible for measuring, analyzing, improving and controlling key processes that influence customer satisfaction and/or productivity growth. Together, we tried to figure out what prospects really looked for and what they wanted to accomplish when they visited our main ecommerce site, QuickBooks.com, which I was managing at the time. We used a Fish Bone analysis (also known as the Cause and Effect analysis or Ishikawa Diagram) to break down, analyze and prioritize what these prospects look for at the site. We broke down the type of information users needed for 1) setting up their QuickBooks software, 2) uploading/downloading additional information, 3) etc. This approach is being used to determine how we can build a useful website for our users.
How is a fishbone diagram constructed?
- List the problem/issue to be studied in the “head of the fish”
- Then list the ’cause’ of the problem
- Then list the details behind the cause — if a user abandons from the search results page, it might mean they can not find a useful response or there might be too many responses and therefore, the user might be overwhelmed, or…
Below are some steps to figure out — some of the ’causes’ behind the problem. At Intuit, we are always asking ourselves, ‘what is the root cause?’
By repeatedly asking the question “Why” (five is a good rule of thumb), you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem. Very often the ostensible reason for a problem will lead you to another question. Although this technique is called “5 Whys,” you may find that you will need to ask the question fewer or more times than five before you find the issue related to a problem.
Benefits Of The 5 Whys
When Is 5 Whys Most Useful?
How To Complete The 5 Whys
1. Write down the specific problem. Writing the issue helps you formalize the problem and describe it completely. It also helps a team focus on the same problem.
2. Ask Why the problem happens and write the answer down below the problem.
3. If the answer you just provided doesn’t identify the root cause of the problem that you wrote down in step 1, ask Why again and write that answer down.
4. Loop back to step 3 until the team is in agreement that the problem’s root cause is identified. Again, this may take fewer or more times than five Whys.
source: Isixsigma.com
Our Online Community Team uses the Fish Bone to analyze such as issues as 1) Why are users registering, but not posting, 2) Why users can not find the answer they are looking for (a post with a helpful reply) or 3) Why X% of users abandon the site from the search results page.
When we looked at the first one — why users register, but did not post, we came up with the
- Problem/Issue: Registered users are not posting
- Cause: 1) Afraid of asking a silly question, 2) Afraid they will not understand the question, 3) etc.
- Detail: Our products are complex ….. and users feel pressured to get an answer right away — and lets face it, managing one’s finances can cause a lot of anxiety.
These are just simple examples… try it out… share what you come up with.. and remember, don’t chew on the bones too long. Too much analysis can paralyze the team.
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