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Selected:ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Decision TreeAssumption SurfacingMVP Test Matrix
| Criterion |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Product Discovery MVP Test Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | When several minimal variants compete to answer the same question, it makes comparing and choosing between them cleaner. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a Test Matrix and a Test Plan. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 30-90 min | 45-90 min | 45-75 min |
Participantsdifferent | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 1-6 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Test Matrix, Test Plan |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | DecisionTreeOptions | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryOptions |