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| Criterion |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | 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 demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-4 h | 15-30 min | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-6 | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Async |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.
