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| Criterion | ![]() Product Discovery Context Canvas | ![]() Innovation Starbursting | ![]() Architecture Software Architecture Canvas | ![]() Innovation Brainstorming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Helps clarify ideas, open questions, and testable next steps in concrete terms. It opens the thinking space, collects ideas, and leads to testable options. The result is captured as a star-shaped question map, question list, and assumption list. | The Software Architecture Canvas reduces a system to the most important architecture decisions, constraints, and interfaces. It is useful when teams need a resilient overall picture quickly. | When a team faces an open question with many obvious directions, the method first creates breadth instead of premature commitment. It separates idea flow from evaluation and makes lines of thought visible, creating a pool for selection and further development. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 1-2 h | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 3-10 | 3-10 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Context canvas, Open questions, Shared context notes | Star-Shaped Question Map, Question List, Assumption List | Architecture Canvas, Goals, Constraints, Quality Attributes | Idea pool, Theme clusters, Shortlist |
Tagsno overlap | ContextFramingRequirementsCanvas | BrainstormingIdeationWorkshopDiscovery | CanvasArchitectureAlignmentWorkshop | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence |



