Questions
How do I find the root cause instead of fixing symptoms?
Trace the problem backward until you find the first place where reality stopped matching what should have happened. Everything downstream may be a consequence.
Why people ask this
Symptoms are visible and urgent, so they are usually the first thing people try to fix. That can create temporary improvement while the original failure keeps producing new problems.
My answer
Chelsie uses Diagnose to understand exactly what prevents today’s reality from becoming the desired reality.
Start with what people experience, then compare it with what objectively happened. Look at the software, process, documentation, records, and assumptions. Both perceived reality and actual reality matter.
Keep tracing backward. Diagnosis is complete when everything before one point is functioning correctly and everything after it can be explained as a consequence.
Real example
One form submission, twelve emails
A contact receiving twelve emails looks like an email problem. The Workflow Conflict Checker story traces it further back: several active workflows shared overlapping enrollment triggers. The inbox flood was the symptom. The uncoordinated workflow design was the earlier divergence.
Common mistake
Stopping where someone first noticed the problem.
The discovery point is useful evidence, but it is not automatically the origin.
Try this
Write down what is happening, what should be happening, and the earliest point you can identify where those two realities separate.