| name | systematic-investigation |
| description | Debug, investigate, and solve complex problems using structured frameworks (5 Whys, Fishbone, OODA, First Principles, PDCA). Use for tricky bugs, failure investigation, root cause analysis, architectural decisions, pre-mortem, or untangling multi-concern situations. Also activate when stuck in circles, on vague/recurring symptoms, or "why does this keep happening." Trigger phrases: "debug this", "troubleshoot", "figure out why", "root cause", "what's going wrong", "fix this bug", "this keeps breaking", "first principles", "pre-mortem", "red team this", "challenge assumptions", "go deeper", "rethink this", "inversion". |
Systematic Investigation
Structured problem-solving — not guess-and-check.
DEFINE → ANALYZE → SOLVE & ACT → CHALLENGE
Iron law: no fixes without root-cause investigation first.
Framework selection
| Situation | Use | Phase | Deep ref |
|---|
| Vague symptom | 5W → 5 Whys | Define → Analyze | references/define-and-debug.md, root-cause-frameworks.md |
| Multiple causes | Ishikawa | Analyze | root-cause-frameworks.md |
| Recurring / systemic | Iceberg | Analyze | root-cause-frameworks.md |
| Stuck on assumptions | First Principles | Analyze | root-cause-frameworks.md |
| Live incident | OODA | Solve | solve-and-challenge.md |
| Iterative improvement | PDCA | Solve | solve-and-challenge.md |
| Stakeholder report | A3 | Solve | solve-and-challenge.md |
| Multi-concern mess | Kepner-Tregoe SA | Define | define-and-debug.md |
| Technical bug / test fail | Debug protocol (4 sub-phases) | All | define-and-debug.md |
Load one deep ref at a time. Elicitation second pass: references/elicitation-methods.md. Origins: references/origins.md.
Mandatory flow
- Define — 5W statement: "[Who] experiences [What] in [Where] since [When], causing [impact]." Load
define-and-debug.md if tangled or technical.
- Analyze — pick method from table; load
root-cause-frameworks.md. Confirm root cause with evidence.
- Governance capture (if AI/process gap) — note rule/skill gap for handoff / skill-author audit (advisory).
- Solve — 5 Hows or OODA/PDCA; load
solve-and-challenge.md. Fix root cause, not symptom. One change at a time.
- Challenge — pre-mortem / adversarial vectors; PROCEED | REVISE | RETHINK. Optional: elicitation methods.
- Report — use
references/report-template.md when handing off or documenting.
Debug red flags (STOP)
- "Quick fix now, investigate later"
- Multiple fixes at once; 3+ failed fixes without re-analysis
- Proposing solutions before tracing data flow
- "Just try X and see"
Done checklist
