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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  Operations Fault Tree Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible. | For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability. | 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. | For a critical top event with several possible triggers, the method logically models failure paths. It makes visible which combinations of conditions can lead to damage. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 2-6 h | 30-60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 3-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Fault Tree, Critical Paths, Cause Hypotheses, Control Actions |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause | Root causeQualityOperations | RiskRoot causeSafety |