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Criterion
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
A paper-based illustration representing Wardley Mapping with its core stages and visible working result.
Systems Thinking
Wardley Mapping
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
Decision Making
Assumption Surfacing
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.Wardley Mapping makes visible where an offering stands today and where it can evolve. The method connects user need, value chain, and evolution stages into a strategic basis for platform, build, or buy decisions.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.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional1-3 h45-90 min
Participantsdifferent
Designers, developers as users, and facilitation2-102-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsWardley Map, Strategic Options, Evolution NotesAssumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan
Tagsno overlap
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
StrategySystems thinkingDynamics
AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery
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Often compared together

Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
Causal Loop Diagram workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Systems Thinking
Causal Loop Diagram
Paper illustration of DIBB with its method-specific working model.
Product Strategy
DIBB
Paper illustration for Risk Storming.
Architecture
Risk Storming