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Criterion
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
Gemba Walk workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
Gemba Walk
Paper illustration for Root Cause Analysis.
Operations
Root Cause Analysis
Paper illustration for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Operations
Failure Mode and Effects 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.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 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 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.
Complexitydifferent
LowLowMediumHigh
Timedifferent
30–60 min per interview30-120 min1-4 h2-6 h
Participantsdifferent
1 participant per interview2-63-83-10
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Interview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryObservation Notes, Improvement IdeasProblem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action PlanFMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions
Tagsno overlap
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
LeanObservationProcessOperations
Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident
RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause
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