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| Criterion |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Engineering Golden Path |  Architecture ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs) |  Innovation Design Sprint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | When teams need a reliable default path for frequent use, sprawl quickly emerges without any guiding logic. Golden Path bundles the preferred path so good practice becomes easy and deviation becomes deliberate. | 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 the product question is unclear and time pressure is high, the method takes a team from an open idea to a testable solution. It connects problem understanding, decision, and learning in one compact format, lowering the risk of spending a lot of energy on a mere guess. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Medium | High |
Timedifferent | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional | 4-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 2-8 | Designers, developers as users, and facilitation | 5-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Prioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisions | Prototype, Test Findings, Decision Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | InnovationPrototypeResearch | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks | Design sprintPrototypeValidationInnovation |