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| Criterion | ![]() Operations Causal Factor Analysis | ![]() Operations Barrier Analysis | ![]() Product Discovery Test Card | ![]() Product Discovery Experiment Canvas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. | The Test Card turns a critical assumption into a testable claim and specifies in advance which result counts as success. | When experiments become unreadable after the fact, it arranges hypothesis, signal, and learning goal on a single canvas. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a Completed Experiment Canvas and a Success Metric. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-6 h | 2-4 h | 20-35 min | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 2-6 | 1-5 | 1-5 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Test Card with a pre-set threshold | Completed Experiment Canvas, Success Metric |
Tagsno overlap | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | Root causeSafetyIncident | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryHypothesis | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryHypothesis |



