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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Engineering Failure Scenario 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. | In critical processes, it is not enough to plan only for the normal case. Failure Scenario Analysis looks at the path into failure and shows which failures, chains, and control gaps cause the most damage. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 45-90 min | 20–45 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 2-8 | Small cross-functional group | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Failure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response Actions |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | FailureResilienceRisk |