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| Criterion |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  UX Research Surveys |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | When a topic needs to be validated broadly and many people can answer the same question, surveys gather structured feedback in a scalable form. Answers become comparable and segmentable instead of remaining merely anecdotal. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 3-14 Tage | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 1-3 | 50+ | Nutzertraffic |
Formatsame | Async | Async | Async |
Outputdifferent | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Survey Results, Charts, Segment Insights | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | QuantitativeResearchValidation | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |
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