What is the first question?
The check that rules out the largest share of cases with the least work. Power, paper, a cable, a signed-in user. If your first diamond requires a specialist, the chart is in the wrong order.
The troubleshooting template uses power as that first check. Replace it. Keep the shape: one question, two actions, a note.
How do you add the next check?
Put another diamond under the action that did not finish the job. Still dark after the cable is reseated is a second question. Do not draw that second question on the path where plugging it in already fixed the symptom.
Stop when the remaining cases are rare enough to be a sentence: call the vendor. That sentence is a rectangle, not an endless tree.
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How is this different from a decision tree?
A decision tree can be any set of questions, such as billing or not. A troubleshooting chart is ordered by cost and by what the person can see in front of them. The leaves are repairs or escalations.
The algorithm template is a different picture again. It loops over a list. Do not use it as a support script.
What are the steps?
- Name the symptom. The thing a person can see. The screen is dark. Not The device is unsupported.
- Ask the cheapest check. Power present? is cheaper than replacing the unit. Put that question first.
- Give each answer an action. Plug it in, or reseat the cable. An answer that says Investigate is not an action.
- Record the try. A shared step at the end, Write what you tried, stops the next person from starting over.