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| Criterion |  UX Research Contextual Inquiry |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For an improvement that still has to prove itself in everyday work, the method runs it through small learning loops. It connects planning, checking, and standardization into a repeatable learning mode. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | 1-5 Tage | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 Beobachtungen | 1-8 | Nutzertraffic | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Field Notes, Workflow Insights, Pain Points | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | UX researchObservationContext | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |