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| Criterion |  Agile Bucket System |  Agile Affinity Estimation |  Innovation Starbursting |  Innovation Lotus Blossom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a large batch of work needs a fast, rough estimate, it sorts items into predefined size buckets. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as a Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, and Split Candidates. | When many tasks need to be classified quickly, it sorts them by perceived effort and similarity. It reduces the effort of fine-grained estimation for large volumes. | Helps clarify ideas, open questions, and testable next steps in concrete terms. It opens the thinking space, collects ideas, and leads to testable options. The result is captured as a star-shaped question map, question list, and assumption list. | When a central question feels too large, the method breaks it into neighboring topic fields with their own depth of ideation. It holds structure and openness at the same time, so adjacent perspectives don't get lost. This grows an idea space out of a core problem. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 30-60 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-12 | 3-12 | 3-10 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Bucketed Backlog, Relative Estimates, Split Candidates | Affinity Size Map, Grouped Estimates, Unclear Items | Star-Shaped Question Map, Question List, Assumption List | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist |
Tagsno overlap | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | EstimationBacklogRelative sizing | BrainstormingIdeationWorkshopDiscovery | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop |