Cognitive Scaffold

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MENTAL MODEL · M6661

How-How Diagram

How-How Diagram
BusinessHigh supportStrategic Management
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Updated 2026-08-22

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

The How-How diagram decomposes a goal by repeatedly asking how it can be achieved. The goal sits at the top, the first how question produces a layer of answers, and each answer is interrogated again until the branches reach actions specific enough to assign. It is the downward counterpart of the Why-Why diagram, which traces causes upward from a symptom to its root. The tool assumes the decomposition can terminate, since the criterion for stopping is that a leaf node names an action someone could start. Ambiguity in the parent goal propagates into every branch, so the statement at the top must be concrete.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Use top-down splitting: write the goal at the top and ask how until each branch reaches an action. - Use stopping rule: stop when a node names something a specific person could start doing. - Use pairing with Why-Why: check that your how-branches address the causes the why-tree identified.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Abstract goals cannot be executed because no one can act on them, and the gap between a goal and an action is usually several levels wide. Repeated how questions close that gap one level at a time, and because each level derives from the one above, the resulting actions stay traceable to the original intent. The stopping rule matters more than the number of levels: a branch ending in another abstraction has produced nothing usable. Used with the Why-Why diagram, the method also reveals branches addressing no identified cause.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why%E2%80%93how_chartZH · Explicit
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