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Criterion
Paper illustration for Contextual Inquiry.
UX Research
Contextual Inquiry
Paper illustration of a four-column Kanban board with limited ongoing work, a visible blocker and a review loop.
Engineering
Kanban
Paper illustration for Bottleneck Analysis.
Operations
Bottleneck Analysis
Purposedifferent
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.When work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable.For a flow that backs up at one point, the method looks for the capacity limit with the greatest leverage. It explains why extra effort elsewhere barely improves throughput.
Complexitysame
MediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
1-3 WochenOngoing1-3 h
Participantsdifferent
4-12 Beobachtungen2-123-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain PointsKanban board, WIP policies, Flow metricsBottleneck Map, Flow Metrics, Improvement Options, Follow-up Measures
Tagsno overlap
UX researchObservationContext
FlowVisual managementDelivery
FlowMeasurementConstraints
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Paper illustration of HEART Framework with its method-specific working model.
UX Research
HEART Framework
Paper illustration for Monte Carlo Forecasting.
Delivery
Monte Carlo Forecasting
Paper illustration for Theory of Constraints.
Operations
Theory of Constraints
Value Stream Mapping workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Delivery
Value Stream Mapping