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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Operations Kepner-Tregoe |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 2-8 h | 1-4 h | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 2-8 | 3-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |