Positive Root Cause Analysis: Reframing The Debrief Interview Approach to Prioritize Participant Wellbeing

Abstract

Human factors guidance documents and standards direct usability test moderators to collect a participant’s reported root cause during a debrief interview. Common root cause investigation techniques focus on collecting feedback related to participants’ mistakes rather than also highlighting their successes. Such emphasis on a participant’s errors can lead to participant frustration, withdrawal, and poor-quality responses. Positive root cause analysis is a novel framework moderators can employ to approach the debrief interview from a success-based perspective. This technique results in more engaged participants who share higher-quality responses, all while prioritizing a participant’s emotional wellbeing.