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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Causal Loop DiagramEvaporating CloudAssumption Mapping
| Criterion | ![]() Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) | ![]() Systems Thinking Causal Loop Diagram | ![]() Systems Thinking Evaporating Cloud | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification. | A Causal Loop Diagram makes feedback, reinforcement, and balance in a system legible. It uncovers side effects and self-reinforcement that stay hidden in linear explanations. | The method makes visible why two seemingly incompatible demands arise and which assumption must be tested to resolve the conflict. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 1-3 h | 60-120 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Causal Loop Diagram, Feedback Notes, Leverage Points | Conflict Cloud, Assumption List, Breakthrough Ideas, Next Experiments | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | FeedbackSystems thinkingCausalityDynamics | Theory of ConstraintsAssumptionsSystems thinking | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |



