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's indeed wrong to have gone this way, what to do about it.
I gained two key insights from experiencing this several times.
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.
Second, the goal is to necessarily to find the "one true cause" 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'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.
I gained two key insights from experiencing this several times.
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.
Second, the goal is to necessarily to find the "one true cause" 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'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.