In Figure 7.2, the process of asking questions to drill down to the root problem is shown. Some textbooks refer to this process as the "5 Whys" because it often takes five questions to find a root cause.

Using the beginning question - Why are sales below target? - create four answers that allow you to drill down to the root problem. As shown in Figure 7.2, each answer becomes the question at the next level, so turn each answer into the next level's question. Be certain to use different questions than the ones shown on Figure 7.2.