Track the reasons behind challenges and problems in any domain using this hierarchy based tool — bonus, it looks like a fish, what’s not to like? 

The Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagram is a visual tool to identify cause and effect relationships as part of a root cause analysis and improvement process. 

HOW IT'S USED.

Considered one of 'seven core quality tools', the diagram is generally used as a collaborative brainstorm process to generate potential causes from key categories and break down immediately obvious causes within those categories into sub causes. 

Thus it explores causal effects via breadth, through considering a range of categories, and depth, by digging beyond the cause into sub causes. 

POSSIBLE CATEGORIES.

The categories might vary, depending on your needs you might consider:

• 5M/1E for manufacturing, based on the original use of the diagram, incorporating machine, methods, measurements, material, people (originally ‘manpower’), and environment.
• 8Ps for marketing, expanded from the 4Ps of marketing, to incorporate product, price, promotion, place, people, process, packaging, and physical evidence. 
• 5Ss for service industry, incorporating supplier, surroundings, systems, scope of skills and standard documentation. 
• 6Ps for work improvements, incorporating policy, process, people, plant, program and product. 

IN YOUR LATTICEWORK.

The Fishbone Diagram makes the 5 Why approach for root cause analysis seem more lightweight, given the latter tends to focus in a single area — however, consider combining the two approaches for best effect. There are a number of models that might inspire the categories you use, such as the 4Ps of Marketing. And you might want to use this approach to avoid challenges involved in navigating Correlation vs Causation.