“Go see, ask why, show respect”

Test analysts, test engineers, test leads and test managers need to understand customers so that our testing includes using the product as the customer uses it. To do this we need to learn how customers use the product by meeting the customer and seeing how they use it. Mr Fuji Cho, the former President of Toyota, is quoted as saying “Go see, ask why, show respect” [1].

 “One of the key tenets of the Toyota Way is ‘genchi gembatsu’: ‘go to the source to find the facts’ This is commonly referred to as ‘go to gemba’”[1] “Gemba is a Japanese word that means ‘the place where something actually happens’”[2]

We should ‘go to gemba’ with purpose. We should define why we are going to gemba and take an intentional approach when seeing a customer. I have been reading Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn by Katie Anderson with the Profound Book Club and she gives these examples of purposes for going to gemba:

• Checking work processes and outcomes
• Validating data and assumptions with observable facts
• Talking to the people involved [1]

Examples of ‘go to gemba’ that I have been part of are:

• When I worked for a fashion retailer as a Test Lead I spent part of my first month working in a retail outlet where I met customers, used the till and handled deliveries. I learned about customers and the issues in running one of the company’s retail outlets. The knowledge I gained was helpful when I returned to the engineering team because it gave me a better understanding of the business and its customers. 
• When I worked for a start-up that had an annual user testing week all developers and testers were encouraged to attend part of the user testing to observe how customers used the product and learn from any issues customers had. Developers and testers saw when customers had difficulties and took this knowledge into their work developing the product. I took the knowledge I gained of how customers used the product into my work as Test Lead.

These ‘go to gemba’ activities gave me a deeper understanding of the business and its customers. This understanding helped me to focus testing on customers. “The customer is the most important part of the production line.”[3]  Testers and the business gain so much from ‘go to gemba’. I encourage you to ‘go to gemba”!

References 

[1] Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn by Katie Anderson (2021, Lesson 1 Communicate Purpose, Every Day and Every Way)

[2] The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker (2004, p224)

[3] Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming (1986, p174)