Interrogate any problem with six short questions: who, what, when, where, why and how.
The Kipling method puts your problem through six questions everyone learns as a child: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Each one lights up a different side of the situation: the people, the facts, the timing, the place, the reasons and the mechanics. Together they make it hard to overlook an important angle.
Use the questions in two ways. To explore, ask each one, then stretch it: Who else? What isn't happening? Why now? Where else? To check, run a plan or an idea past all six and notice which ones you can't answer yet. The blanks are often where the real work is.
Use it when you need to understand a problem quickly, when a discussion keeps circling one angle, when a group has run dry of ideas, or when you want to check a plan for gaps before you commit.
Ask all six. Then stretch each one: who else, what not, when not, where else, why again, how much.
Choose a part of the diagram or a tab to explore each question.
Who is involved, who is affected, and who has a say?
What exactly is happening, and what would good look like?
When does it happen, when did it start, and when must it be solved?
Where does it happen, and where doesn't it?
Why does it happen, and why does it matter?
How does it work today, how much does it cost, and how could it work instead?
There's nothing fancy about the Kipling questions. That's exactly why they're useful.
Everyone has favorite questions. Engineers tend to ask how, managers ask when, advocates ask who. Running all six makes you look where you wouldn't naturally look, and that's often where an overlooked cause is hiding.
A direct question pulls for an answer in a way a statement doesn't. And because these six are so ordinary, anyone can ask them without sounding like a critic, even about the boss's favorite plan.
Sort what you know under six headings and the empty ones stand out. A blank under “when” or “who decides” is a clear, specific thing to go and find out.
Each answer can be stretched into new questions: who else, where else, why not, how else. That turns a fact-finding exercise into a source of ideas as well.
State the problem in one sentence at the top of a page. Below it, make six headings: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Leave plenty of room under each.
Work through the six in any order. Write down every answer you can, including the ones you aren't sure of. Mark guesses with a question mark so you can check them later.
Push each heading further: Who else? Who decides? What isn't happening? When did it start? Where doesn't it happen? Why, and why again? How much? The second and third answers are usually more revealing than the first.
Look for empty or thin headings and for answers marked with a question mark. Each one becomes a quick task: who to ask, what to measure, where to go and look.
Rewrite the problem in one sentence using what you learned. It should be sharper and more specific than where you started. Polish it with Problem Statement.
A page with six headings, or a whiteboard split into six, and about 15 minutes. With AI, the prompt below asks the questions for you and keeps track of the gaps.
Subject: a city's new food-scrap composting bins. Goal: keep more food waste out of the landfill. Constraint: the program has to show results before the next budget review.
Homeowners use the bins. Apartment renters, about half the city, rarely do. Building managers were never contacted.
The bins collect about a third of the expected volume, and some are contaminated with plastic bags.
Use peaks on weekends and drops sharply in winter. It never grew after the launch event.
Bins near grocery stores fill up. Bins in parks stay empty, because nobody carries scraps to a park.
Renters have no small kitchen container and nowhere to keep scraps for a week without smells. Why it matters: landfill fees rise next year.
Residents heard about the bins through one mailer and a news story. How will we know it's working? Weekly weight at each site.
Before: “People aren't using the bins.” After: “Apartment renters, half our residents, rarely compost because they have no easy way to store scraps at home and the bins aren't on their daily routes.” Next step: talk to three building managers.
When you ask the Kipling questions yourself, it's easy to skip the ones you can't answer. An AI partner asks every question, follows up on vague replies and keeps track of the gaps. You supply the facts, the local knowledge and the judgment about which gaps matter.
Let AI ask one question at a time and probe each of your answers.
Ask me the Kipling questions about my problem, one at a time, with a follow-up after each answer.
Push one question further when its answers feel thin.
Give me 8 harder versions of "Who?" for my problem: who else, who decides, who loses...
Turn your notes into a list of what you still need to find out.
From my answers, list what's still unknown under each heading and the cheapest way to find out.
Run a plan past all six to spot what's missing before you start.
Check my plan against who, what, when, where, why and how. Which can't it answer yet?
Describe your problem and what you already know, then copy the prompt into any AI assistant. In coach mode the AI asks the six questions one at a time, follows up on your answers, tracks the gaps and ends with a sharper problem.
The “Open in” links put the prompt in the web address. If your challenge includes anything sensitive, copy and paste instead.
After the session, click one to copy it, then paste it into the same chat.