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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 45-60 min | 45-120 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs |