Simple Root Cause Analysis
Brief
Simple Root Cause Analysis is a lightweight team workshop designed to solve everyday problems fast — 20 minutes is all you need. It uses four colour-coded zones filled with sticky notes to guide a team from problem to solution in a clear, structured way: yellow for the problem, pink for causes, blue for fixes, and green for success.
Who Can Use It
Anyone dealing with a recurring or frustrating team problem — no facilitation experience required. It works for small teams across any industry: operations, retail, hospitality, customer service, product, and more.
How to Use It
Work through the four zones in order:
Zone 1 — Yellow (What is the problem?): Write the problem in one sentence. Include what it is, when it happens, and how big it is.
Zone 2 — Pink (Why is it happening?): Brainstorm possible root causes. Add one cause per sticky note — the more, the better.
Zone 3 — Blue (How do we fix it?): Write one fix per sticky note. Try to match each fix to a cause from Zone 2.
Zone 4 — Green (What does success look like?): Define how you'll know the fix worked. Keep it measurable.
About the Example
The example follows a café team tackling slow service during the morning rush. Their problem: customers wait 12+ minutes for coffee against a 5-minute goal, with 18 walk-outs recorded in one week (7–9am). Root causes identified include only one espresso machine running before 8am, two new baristas slow on the register, mobile and walk-in orders sharing one queue, the milk fridge being far from the bar, and no one owning restocking during the rush. Fixes include warming up the second machine at 6:30 daily, creating a separate mobile order pickup station, introducing cheat-sheets and buddy shifts for new staff, and moving the milk fridge next to the bar. Success is defined as average wait under 5 minutes, zero walk-outs during the rush, and 95% of mobile orders ready on time.
Cheers!
Khawaja Rizwan
