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| Criterion |  Innovation How Might We |  DevOps Blameless Postmortem |  Operations 5 Whys |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With a stuck problem carrying many implicit assumptions, the method translates observations into open, workable questions. It sharpens the problem frame without pre-thinking the solution, turning frustration or fuzziness into a search space with clear direction. | 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. | 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. | 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 | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30–45 min | 30-90 min | 15-30 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 3-12 | 2-6 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | HMW Questions, Challenge Framing, Idea Prompts | Postmortem Doc, Action Items, Timeline | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | FramingOpportunityIdeationQuestions | Site Reliability EngineeringIncidentLearningReliability | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |