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| Criterion |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Product Strategy GIST Planning |  Product Strategy Impact 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. | 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. | GIST Planning helps clarify target groups, value, goals, and priorities. It links customer value, product logic, and decision priorities, and captures the result as goals, an idea bank, and a step-project list. | When a goal needs to be connected to several possible paths, it shows chains of impact instead of feature lists. It connects business goal, behavior change, and measures. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | Wochen bis Monate je Goal | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 1-8 | 3-10 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Goals, Idea bank, Step-project list, Tasks, Learning reports | Impact Map, Outcome Hypotheses, Delivery Options |
Tagsno overlap | InnovationPrototypeResearch | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | RoadmapOutcomesPlanningExperiments | OutcomesStrategyBehaviorPlanning |