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| Criterion |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 content only makes sense internally and users can't find the structure again, card sorting exposes their mental order. Terms, groups, and naming are then aligned with the target group's expectations. | 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. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 20-45 min | 30-90 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | Based on research question | 1-6 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Information architectureNavigationStructure | DecisionTreeOptions | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |