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| Criterion |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Operations Causal Factor Analysis |  Product Discovery Outcome-Driven Innovation |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For an event with a complicated course, the method breaks down the contributing factors along the timeline. It shows how conditions, decisions, and reactions together produce a course of events. | Outcome-Driven Innovation clarifies customer problems, solution opportunities, and evidence. It separates jobs, desired outcomes, importance, satisfaction, and opportunity, and captures results as desired outcome statements, an opportunity landscape, and segments by underserved needs. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. |
Complexitysame | High | High | High | High |
Timedifferent | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 2-6 h | Mehrere Wochen | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 3-10 | 2-6 researchers plus sample | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Event Timeline, Causal Factor Chart, Cause List, Corrective Actions | Desired outcome statements, Opportunity landscape, Segmentation by underserved needs, Innovation hypotheses | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas |
Tagsno overlap | InnovationPrototypeResearch | CausalityIncidentRoot causeTimeline | OutcomesInnovationResearchQuantitative | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality |