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Criterion
Paper illustration for Bottleneck Analysis.
Operations
Bottleneck Analysis
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Paper illustration for Constraint Analysis.
Decision Making
Constraint Analysis
Purposedifferent
For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput.When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise.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
MediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
1-3 h1-3 Wochen30-90 min
Participantsdifferent
3-84-12 Beobachtungen2-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Bottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up MeasuresField Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsConstraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries
Tagsno overlap
FlowMeasurementConstraints
UX researchObservationContext
ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions
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Often compared together

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

Decision Tree method illustration showing its working structure
Decision Making
Decision Tree
Paper illustration of HEART Framework with its method-specific working model.
UX Research
HEART Framework
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Paper matrix with six colored hat cards for information, feeling, value, caution, ideas and process control.
Facilitation
Six Thinking Hats