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Selected:Design ThinkingAssumption SurfacingARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)Assumption Mapping
Criterion
Design Thinking as a learning loop: an observation notebook, a focused problem statement, different idea sketches, a cardboard prototype and user-test notes. Feedback leads to new understanding.
Innovation
Design Thinking
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
Decision Making
Assumption Surfacing
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
Purposedifferent
For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service.Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it.ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification.When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first.
Complexitydifferent
HighLowMediumMedium
Timedifferent
1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen45-90 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-60 min
Participantsdifferent
4-102-8Designers, developers as users, and facilitation2-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Problem Statement, Prototype, Test LearningsAssumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning PlanPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsAssumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking
Tagsno overlap
InnovationPrototypeResearch
AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation
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