More than five whys and “layer eight” problems
I used to work at a hedge fund known for its diagnosis process, a logical process of clearly defining the suboptimal outcome that occurred, agreeing on how it should have gone and what had happened, and if it&#x27;s indeed wrong to have gone this way, what to do about it.<p>I gained two key insights from experiencing this several times.<p>First, the really useful diagnosis often transcend realms. Eg, what may have occurred as a technical issue was really the result of a process issue, which may have been a result of a hiring issue, which may have stemmed from the personality of the manager who made the hire.<p>Second, the goal is to necessarily to find the &quot;one true cause&quot; but to drive some improvement. For example, if something was caused by a confluence of factors, if you dove in and improved just one of the factors, you&#x27;ve already made the situation better. You may still chose to fix just the tech or process, but the insight into the deeper causes helped shape our understanding through time.