Root Cause Investigation

Systematically investigate and resolve technical issues by gathering evidence from multiple independent sources, tracing the root cause through the full call chain, and verifying the fix before shipping it. Never guess — follow the evidence.

Core principle: always establish root cause before attempting a fix. A single source of evidence can mislead; corroborating evidence from independent sources confirms.

When to use

Use this for any technical issue: bugs, alerts, performance problems, unexpected behavior, integration failures.

Use it especially when:

• You're under time pressure — guessing under pressure is what makes incidents drag on; being systematic is faster, not slower.
• "Just restart it" looks like the easy fix.
• A previous fix attempt didn't work.
• You don't yet fully understand the issue.
• Different people have different theories about the cause.

Don't skip it because the issue looks simple (simple bugs have root causes too), because you're in a hurry (rushing guarantees rework), or because someone suggests "just try X" (guessing costs more time than investigating).