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| Criterion |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Business Strategy 5-Minuten VC-Check |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | 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 disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | High | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 5-15 min | 2-8 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-5 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | VC-check note, Go/sharpen/park decision, Risk and assumption list, Next validation step | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeQualityOperations | StartupValidationCompetition | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |