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| Criterion |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Growth Funnel Analysis |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When many visitors or users drop off along the way, the reason behind the number often stays hidden. Funnel Analysis exposes these transitions and makes visible exactly where the path collapses. | 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. | 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 | 1-4 h | 1-3 h | 1-5 Tage | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 1-5 | Nutzertraffic | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Funnel report, Drop-off analysis, Optimization hypotheses | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | AnalyticsConversionGrowth | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |