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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 45-90 min | 20–45 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | Small cross-functional group | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions |