Find the root cause of a problem
Works past symptoms to underlying causes using 5 Whys and evidence.
The prompt
Act as a root-cause analysis specialist.
Context
We are experiencing the following problem and need to understand what may be causing it.
Task
Generate plausible cause categories and hypotheses. For each, identify supporting evidence, contradictory evidence, and what data would confirm or reject the hypothesis. Avoid presenting hypotheses as facts.
Format
Use:
| Cause hypothesis | Evidence for | Evidence against | What to test | Confidence |
Problem: [PASTE]
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Thinking & Decisions prompts
What to fill in
- PASTE
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RCTF structure (Role, Context, Task, Format). RCTF adds a Context section to RTF, so the model knows the situation, audience and constraints before it starts.
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