How to make a fishbone diagram in PowerPoint?
Creating fishbone diagrams in PowerPoint is frustrating, as it involves making a fish shape. It is advisable to use editable Fishbone templates; however, if you want to learn how to make a fishbone diagram in PowerPoint, follow the steps below.
- Go to the PowerPoint shape library.
On the Insert tab, click the “Shapes” option. Select a shape from the library, then click and drag the cursor to draw the shape on your slide.

- Draw the "head" and "spine".
The head of a fishbone diagram contains the main problem statement. After adding the head, draw a horizontal line extended to the left.

- Add causes
Next, draw the additional lines from the centerline or spine at an angle. Each of the lines represents a cause contributing to the problem statement. Add small rectangles at the end of each line to label the causes.
- Label your diagram
Replace any text placeholders with actual label content, which includes your problem statement and contributing causes.

What is a fishbone diagram?
Sometimes called a Cause-and-Effect Diagram, a Fishbone Diagram gives a systematic way of looking at the causes contributing to those effects. A Fishbone Diagram template aims to help teams categorize the potential causes of problems or issues in an orderly way. It also helps in determining the root cause of the business problem rather than treating its symptoms. The Fishbone Diagram shows areas of weaknesses and helps managers prioritize business issues to focus on those points.
How to Use the Fishbone Diagrams for Root Cause Analysis?
The Fishbone diagram helps in Root Cause Analysis for any given business problem at hand.
- The mouth of Fish reveals the problem statement, what actually is the problem and how it occurred, and its origin.
- Fishbone applies to a problem with some hidden cause. Fishbone is an approach to present genuine causes and real factors. In Fishbone, the causes are ladders to reach the root cause.
- Fishbone diagrams help understand the complication of the problem, all kinds of factors, including environmental and financial factors, which need to be elaborated and studied one by one. The more comprehensive the analysis, the easier it is to get to the root cause and origin of the problem.