Example: Five Whys for Career Dissatisfaction
How one person used Five Whys to discover their job dissatisfaction was actually about misaligned values, not the work itself.
Capture this play inside the Decision Log and make it your own.
The situation
Sarah, a software engineer at a FAANG company, felt increasingly unhappy at work but couldn't articulate why.
She was well-paid, worked with smart people, and had excellent benefits. On paper, everything was great.
Before deciding to quit, she used Five Whys to dig deeper.
The Five Whys process
Problem: "I'm unhappy at work."
Why #1: "Why are you unhappy?" → "I dread Monday mornings."
Why #2: "Why do you dread Monday?" → "My work feels meaningless."
Why #3: "Why does it feel meaningless?" → "I'm building features no one uses."
Why #4: "Why are you building unused features?" → "Product decisions are driven by metrics, not user problems."
Why #5: "Why are decisions metric-driven?" → "Company culture prioritizes growth metrics over impact."
The insight
Sarah realized the root cause wasn't the job itself—it was a misalignment between her values (user impact) and the company's priorities (growth metrics).
This was a systemic issue she couldn't fix from her position.
The decision
Instead of quitting immediately, Sarah tried two things:
- Internal transfer: She explored teams focused on user experience and accessibility—areas more aligned with her values.
- Side projects: She started contributing to open source on weekends to get her "impact fix."
After 3 months, the internal transfer didn't pan out (no openings), but side projects helped her realize she wanted to work at a mission-driven company.
She eventually left for a smaller startup building tools for nonprofits—lower pay, but much higher alignment.
Key takeaway
By using Five Whys, Sarah avoided a knee-jerk quit and understood the real problem: values misalignment.
This helped her make a more intentional career move to a place where she could do meaningful work.