There are three types of Execution questions: Metrics for Success, Trade offs/Experiments and Root Cause Analysis (RCA). In this article we are going to discuss strategies for Root Cause Analysis.

These questions can feel like a game of 20 questions. More recently, we have seen a pivot to ending Metrics for Success prompts with trade off questions around the metrics you spell out. For example, do you expect X or Y to happen.

For standalone RCA questions, there are three big categories of causes of the problem:

1. External to the Company

2. Internal to the Company; External to the Team

3. Internal to the Team

Examples: External to the Company

• politics

• weather

• terrorist attacks

• pandemics

• changing trends/competition

Examples: Internal to the Company; External to the Team

• company-wide marketing efforts

• bugs on other teams

• code releases

• APIs not working for X reasons or in Y location

Examples: Internal to the Team

• recent code releases

• partner APIs that fail in one market (related to team release)

• leaky funnel issues where your team own the funnel