5 Whys Root Cause Game

An interactive web-based learning game for adult learners to practice the 5 Whys root cause analysis technique with AI-guided facilitation.

Live Demo

Play the Game

What is the 5 Whys?

The 5 Whys is a problem-solving technique where you repeatedly ask "Why?" to drill down from a surface-level problem to its root cause. It's widely used in Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement methodologies.

How It Works

1. Enter a problem statement — describe a real or hypothetical workplace issue
2. Answer 5 Why questions — an AI facilitator asks contextual questions based on your answers
3. Review your analysis — get a structured summary with the likely root cause, a corrective action, and a reflection prompt

Features

• AI-powered facilitation using the OpenAI API
• One question at a time with animated progress tracking
• Example problems to get started quickly
• Structured summary with root cause and corrective action
• Copy to clipboard and print/PDF export
• Confetti celebration on completion
• Responsive design for desktop and mobile
• Single HTML file — no build step, no dependencies

Getting Started

Option 1: Use the live demo

Visit alfredang.github.io/5whys and bring your own OpenAI API key.

Option 2: Run locally

git clone https://github.com/alfredang/5whys.git
cd 5whys
open index.html

Requirements

• A modern web browser
• An OpenAI API key

Tech Stack

• HTML / CSS / Vanilla JavaScript
• OpenAI Chat Completions API (gpt-4o-mini)

License

MIT