The ‘3-why’ method: Refining your observations, briefs, and assumptions to drive more impact!
It is still in my vivid memories when Prof. Jhumki was explaining to us how ‘asking why’ multiple times helps us define better design statements. This was almost 4 years ago when I was studying product design for my master’s degree.
Initially, I thought okay this is yet another method in the catalog of UX methods. Design is pretty hands-on and you won’t find any beauty until you do it yourself. Ma’am took an example and that literally blew me(I guess I’m exaggerating a little)
Let’s assume that we have a problem statement:
‘Design a vase.’
Try asking why to every outcome until we get something meaningful
- Design a vase
Why design a vase?
- To keep flowers in it?
Why do you want flowers?
- To keep the room environment fresh and beautiful
Why it is important for you to keep the environment fresh and beautiful
- Because that affects people positively and soothes them from everyday hustles
So we can completely change our problem statement to:
Design a product/service that soothes people through daily hustles and affects them positively!
The effect of this is huge. You can now come up with tons of ideas to solve this problem. Generally, you should ask why 3–5 times to come up with better outcomes.
Let's decode this:
‘Asking why’ help us question our own decisions critically, in a big way & force us to go into deeper aspects of the problem. Many times our experience becomes heavy on us while taking decisions & we tend to go by our instincts.
Well, I’m not against going by your instincts as it works, sometimes, but it can go terribly wrong as well.
Taking risks is good until you're producing good results most of the time, but if you’re failing, your career is at risk.
So it's always better to test your assumptions. Asking why exactly does that. You think more deeply about your decisions and try to come up with more refined ones.
Distribution:
Now, I realised, this is not only limited to problem statements. You can apply this to everything, everywhere! Try applying it to bad situations and it will give you solutions to come out of it. Try asking why more in collaborations, to managers, to developers, politely & curiously! Just experiment! Practice this will lead you to highly impactful findings in your research to take better decisions.
One thing to note. Do this practice in writing only. Don’t try to do it in your mind only. That may increase your confusion.
With this, I’m ending here. Do share your results in the comments. Thanks!
Hi, I’m Onkar. If you’re new here, I write about UX, design, music, and life experiences that I think are useful for others. Follow me for more. Cheers!
