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⚡ Advanced Techniques·Works on: claude, chatgpt

5 Whys Root-Cause Analysis

Technique: 5 Whys

Iteratively ask 'why' 5 times. Dig past symptoms to the real cause. (Toyota Production System.)

Advanced#root-cause#5-whys#diagnosis
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Use the 5 Whys root-cause analysis protocol.

Problem / symptom:


Protocol:

**Why 1.**
Why did this happen? State the most-likely immediate cause. Cite the evidence.

**Why 2.**
Why did THAT happen? Go one level deeper, not just a re-statement.

**Why 3.**
Why did THAT happen? At this depth, you're usually past 'who' and into 'what process or system'.

**Why 4.**
Why did THAT happen? Usually a system / incentive / design choice.

**Why 5.**
Why did THAT happen? Often a tradeoff someone made that seemed right at the time.

**The root cause.**
The answer to Why 5 (or wherever the chain bottoms out into 'we chose to design it this way') is the real cause. Surface fixes addressing Why 1 will not prevent recurrence.

**The intervention.**
- What would fix the ROOT cause? (Expensive but durable.)
- What would just stop the symptom? (Cheap but the next variant will appear.)
- Which do you recommend, and what's the tradeoff?

If at any Why you don't have enough information, name the data point that would unblock the next level.
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Before — the lazy prompt
Why did <X> happen?

Why it works

  • Most root-cause analyses stop at Why 2 — the model now resists that.
  • Going past 'who' to 'what system/incentive' is the move that prevents future recurrences.
  • The 'name the missing data' fallback prevents fabrication when the chain bottoms out.

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