customer wants fix now but root cause needs time

The mature answer: you do BOTH, in the right order, and you're honest about the trade-off. 1) Short-term: get the customer back up FAST with a safe workaround or temporary fix — you communicate exactly what it is and its limits. 2) Long-term: you keep working the root cause and don't present the workaround as 'the fix.' 3) You set expectations clearly — 'this gets you running now, but the permanent fix needs X.' The key line: 'I never let a temporary fix masquerade as a permanent one.' That's the GPS judgment — customers respect speed + honesty. A real example strengthens it: a quick patch to restore operation while you chased the real mechanism.