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[QualitiAmo - Stefania]

Su Lean Innovation and Idea Management potete leggere un articolo in due parti dal titolo: "The Key to Innovation: Problem Definition".

Prima parte --> traduzione automatica con Google translator

Seconda parte --> traduzione automatica con Google translator

The key to innovation lies in the problem and not the ideas. In the Lean Manufacturing world, and one of the reasons why companies which live by production systems similar to TPS are successful, is that they systematically use problem solving tools such as the 8-D, the 7-Steps or the 5-Why in order to improve their processes and products. In the scope of innovation, the later is perhaps the most versatile of the tools in that it forces you to ask “Why?” (to the previous Why) multiple times until the problem is narrowed down to a potential root cause. Narrowing the problem down to the root cause allows you to work with only a small set of feasible solutions that can truly address the bigger problem.

Taking a real life (embarrassing) example that most of us have experienced (ok, I’ll admit… not most, but many of us.): Locking our keys in the car!

That in itself is a broad problem, but there may be numerous reasons or combinations of reasons could cause this problem, and for everybody it is a different set of circumstances that will cause it. Things ranging from a phone call at the wrong moment, the radio being on, a beautiful person walking by (yes, we are all guilty of wandering eyes), a malfunctioning door lock, a crying child… and the list can continue to grow… can lead to the problem. It is also true that for each individual the corrective action that will eventually need to take place will be different, and it does not make sense to correct every possible cause when in reality only one or two circumstances will lead to it.

So here is an example to illustrate the 5-why strategy to find the real problem that caused the keys from being locked in the car, and how an individual would use this technique to prevent it from happening again:

Initial Problem: Keys locked in the car

Why (1)?: I was distracted.

Why (2)?: I was talking to a friend on the phone

Why (3)? I was talking on the phone while driving.

Why (4)? I answered the phone.

Why (5)? The phone rang.


The real root cause to the problem of locking the door with the keys in the car was that the phone rang. The solution to the initial problem will be to find ways of keeping the phone from ringing. In essence this is the real problem that needs to be solved. And just to put forth the few ideas that I think can solve it…

1) get rid of the phone.

2) turn the phone off when getting in the car

3) turn the ringer off when getting in the car.


Now, had we tried to find solutions to the initial and broad problem of locking the keys in the car, we may have generated a gigantic list of feasible ideas that would not have effectively solved the problem. For example:

1) get rid of the car

2) don’t drive

3) Remove the locks from the doors

4) tie the keys to my finger with a string

5) hire someone to remain in the car 24/7.


It goes without saying that the key to solving a problem lies in phrasing it correctly. In the case of the locked key the real problem that needed addressing was “How do we keep the phone from ringing while driving?”

The 5-Why tool is a valuable tool that can also be used to define an innovation challenge. By defining the problem correctly, your team will be able to formulate the best ideas to address it.

In Part I of this blog entry I illustrated how the 5-why method helps to narrow a broad problem down to its root cause. This root cause becomes the problem definition.

Industry leaders know that the key to their success is to effectively identify market needs before their competitors do. To do this, they can ill afford to devote their valuable resources on a broad problem (i.e.: How can we do business in the Asian market) because doing so means that the answer will take longer to identify and validate. Instead, they focus on the same question and narrow it down to a more targeted question: “What products can we develop for the Chinese software market?”

So going back to the Locked Key scenario in Part I, over the years, auto manufacturers have realized that locked keys presented opportunities. In a likely scenario of 5-Why problem-solving an auto manufacturer may have approached the innovation behind one of the many locked-key prevention methods in this way:

Initial Problem: People get locked out of their cars.

Why (1)?: People lock their doors without having the keys in their possession.

Why (2)?: People exit the vehicle without removing the key from the ignition.

Why (3)? People are distracted

Why (4)? There are many factors such as radios, phones, children, rolled down windows, open sunroofs, lights, wipers, purses, and briefcases that a driver must interact with when getting ready to exit the car.

Why (5)? Humans try to multi-task, even though they can only do one function at a time?

The 5th question becomes the key to generating the right question because it is clear that people lock their keys because of “function overload”. A properly phrased challenge would be: “How can we prevent drivers from locking their keys if we cannot count on them to consciously remove the keys from the car?” This question is key in that there is a need to prevent drivers from locking their keys in the car, but also a realization that in the solution you cannot count on the driver to consciously participate in removing the keys.

I chose this example because it wasn’t until this last decade that a real fool-proof solution to the locked key dilemma was devised even though for the better part of the last 3 decades auto manufacturers innovated nifty mechanical schemes to force drivers into un-natural motions before locking their doors, or intricate electronic schemes to unlock the doors (some from outer space!... via satellite.) …here is a small sampling of those solutions:

1) Lifting on the door handle while depressing the button
2) Locking the doors only with the remote
3) Forcing the driver to lock the door with the key
4) Providing a call center that you could call from a phone to have a customer service rep send a satellite signal back to the car to unlock it
5) Providing a numeric combination keypad on the door.

These were each good solutions, but what is evident is that the question of how to prevent distracted drivers form locking the keys was addressed many times and in different ways and with obvious financial and technological constraints.

In the case of the locked key, the innovation which is now the trend in the auto market, but most likely not the final solution in a long list of attempts, is the RFID key. This solution allows the car to detect if the key is inside or outside the car before locking it. “Keyless-Entry”, and its close cousin “Keyless-Go” have virtually eliminated locked key situation. ( …unless, of-course, the driver decides to throw the key back through the open sunroof and into the vehicle after it has been locked.)

In conclusion, the real “Key” to innovation is in the problem definition. Don’t lock your organization out of effective innovation by ignoring the root problems.