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Criterion
Gemba Walk workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
Gemba Walk
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Blameless Postmortem workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
DevOps
Blameless Postmortem
Purposedifferent
When there is uncertainty about the real course of a process, the method brings observation to the place where work happens. It combines perception, follow-up questions, and process knowledge so decisions rest on actual workflows instead of assumptions.When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise.After an incident with damage or a near miss, the method creates a sober field for learning without assigning blame. It directs attention to the course of events, conditions, and effective countermeasures.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMedium
Timedifferent
30-120 min1-3 Wochen30-90 min
Participantsdifferent
2-64-12 Beobachtungen3-12
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Observation Notes, Improvement IdeasField Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsPostmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline
Tagsno overlap
LeanObservationProcessOperations
UX researchObservationContext
Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability
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Incident Command workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
DevOps
Incident Command
Paper illustration for Learning Review.
Operations
Learning Review
A3 Problem-Solving workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
A3 Problem Solving