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| Criterion |  UX Research Card Sorting |  UX Research User Interviews |  Product Discovery Opportunity Solution Tree |  Product Strategy GIST Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible. | When discovery keeps swinging between goals, ideas, and learning loops, it creates clear steering logic. It connects the desired outcome, opportunities, and experiments into a legible structure. | GIST Planning helps clarify target groups, value, goals, and priorities. It links customer value, product logic, and decision priorities, and captures the result as goals, an idea bank, and a step-project list. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 20-45 min | 30–60 min per interview | 1-2 h Setup, laufend | Wochen bis Monate je Goal |
Participantsdifferent | Based on research question | 1 participant per interview | 2-6 | 3-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Content groups, Label set, IA hypotheses | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Opportunity Solution Tree, Experiment Backlog, Learning Log | Goals, Idea bank, Step-project list, Tasks, Learning reports |
Tagsno overlap | Information architectureNavigationStructure | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | DiscoveryOutcomesExperimentsOpportunity | RoadmapOutcomesPlanningExperiments |