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| Criterion | ![]() Engineering Fault Isolation | ![]() Engineering Hypothesis-Driven Troubleshooting | ![]() Business Strategy 5-Minuten VC-Check | ![]() Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | In technical failures, the visible symptom often gets mixed up with the actual cause. Fault Isolation narrows the fault space and progressively reduces which part of the system is truly affected. | When systems fail unexpectedly, spontaneous attempts often produce more noise than insight. Hypothesis-driven Troubleshooting translates symptoms into testable assumptions and makes troubleshooting learnable. | The 5-Minute VC Check clarifies opportunities and strategic options at the earliest idea stage. It compares problem quality, customer willingness to pay, alternatives, differentiation, and market potential, and captures the result as a VC-check note, go/sharpen/park decision, and risk list. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-180 min | 30-240 min | 5-15 min | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 1-6 | 1-5 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Fault Isolation Map, Test Log, Excluded Hypotheses, Narrowed Fault Area | Hypothesis Log, Test Plan, Evidence Notes, Diagnosis Summary | VC-check note, Go/sharpen/park decision, Risk and assumption list, Next validation step | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | TroubleshootingDiagnosisEngineering | TroubleshootingProblem solvingDiagnosis | StartupValidationCompetition | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |



