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| Criterion | ![]() Product Discovery Context Canvas | ![]() Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis | ![]() UX Research Contextual Inquiry | ![]() Systems Thinking Rich Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When an environment of users, systems, and constraints is hard to grasp, it puts the context compactly on the table. It creates a clear reading of influence, boundary, and dependency. | CATWOE structures a problem from six viewpoints and prevents too narrow a view of the situation. Different experiences of the system become comparably discussable this way. | When work processes are known only from accounts and the real context stays hidden, Contextual Inquiry makes behavior at the workplace visible. Observation and follow-up questions together show how people actually work, get interrupted, and improvise. | A Rich Picture brings an unclear situation onto a shared drawing. It captures actors, tensions, information flows, and blind spots before the team jumps to solutions too early. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 45-90 min | 1-3 Wochen | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 3-8 | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 2-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Context canvas, Open questions, Shared context notes | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes |
Tagsno overlap | ContextFramingRequirementsCanvas | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders | UX researchObservationContext | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization |



