You run the conversation with the same five questions and find every answer again
Guide improvement conversations with the KATA coaching questions and capture the insights, obstacles, and next steps from each session. Coach and learner work through systematic improvement together, as equals.
Benefits
Guided Coaching Questions
The five KATA coaching questions are built into the workflow, ensuring every coaching conversation follows the proven pattern. Coaches stay on track, and learners develop consistent scientific thinking habits.
Session Documentation
Capture the key insights, obstacles identified, and next experiments from each coaching session. Every session is saved, so you can look back over weeks and months.
Coaching as Equals
No hierarchy labels. The coach and the learner work on the improvement together, and either person can take either role.
PDCA Built In
The five coaching questions map directly onto the PDCA cycle, namely Plan (target condition), Do (next experiment), Check (observation), and Act (next step).
How It Works
Start a Coaching Session
Open Coaching Reflections for the process you are working on and start the five questions.
Walk Through the Five Questions
The tool prompts each coaching question in sequence. What is the target condition? What is the actual condition now? What obstacles are you addressing? What is your next step? When can we check what you learned?
Capture Reflections
Document the target condition, the current state, the obstacle you are addressing, and the next experiment you will run before the next coaching cycle.
Review Coaching History
Every session is saved as a documented reflection. From the Operator version, look back at earlier sessions on the same process to see how the improvement path developed.
Use Cases
- -Daily KATA coaching cycles between a coach and a learner
- -Structured reflection after Kaizen events and improvement experiments
- -Training new coaches with the guiding questions behind each of the five coaching questions
- -Coaching conversations by phone or video, with the coach noting the answers in the app
- -Leadership development through documented coaching practice
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the KATA coaching questions?
The five questions run as follows. (1) What is the target condition? (2) What is the actual condition now? (3) What obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition? Which one are you addressing now? (4) What is your next step (next experiment)? What do you expect? (5) When can we go and see what we have learned from taking that step? You do not need coaching training, the five questions guide you.
Who is the coach and who is the learner?
Anyone can be either. The coach asks the questions, the learner runs the experiment. The roles can switch.
How does coaching data stay private?
All coaching data is stored locally on your device. Nothing is sent to external servers.