5 Why's

We started our 5 why’s by assessing the problem that was given to us. After some team discussion, we believed that the problem that was given to us was to create how we can create better walking poles to help with faster recovery from leg injuries. This understanding of the problem has changed since our 5 Why’s presentation. After the extensive secondary research we have conducted, we found that many of the research saw no difference between nordic walking and regular walking on the lower limbs but there were benefits for the upper body. Hence, we are now also including the cardiovascular system and such into consideration for the product.

The first why we identified was “Why should we create better walking poles to help with faster recovery from leg injuries.” This led to our determination that its because the current treatment is not adequate. Which led us to the second Why, “Why is the current treatment not adequate.” We believe the current treatment is lacking because it's taking too long. The third why is “Why is current treatment taking too long?”. Current walking poles are taking a long time to help faster recoveries from leg injuries because current walking aids are outdated. The fourth why is “Why are the current walking aids outdated”. The walking aids that are used today are outdated because they do not incorporate new technology. This leads us to our final Why, which is “ why is it not incorporating technology.” We believe that is because there is an existing gap between today’s technology and the medical field. Hence, we concluded that the root cause of our problem is that the current walking aids are limited to people with leg injuries, not the general population.

This exercise of narrowing down our focus by questioning why helped us identify the root causes of the problem we believed we wanted to solve. However, after first meeting with our project partner, we quickly identified that we had a different understanding of the problem than what was expected. The focus of our project was wrong. The focus of the project was to build a measuring tool to help with the research that aims to study is nordic walking is more beneficial for faster recovery than regular walking. Nonetheless, this project helped us identify stakeholders and discuss the problem within our group.