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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Growth A/B Testing |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | When two variants compete, discussions quickly decide by taste rather than effect. A/B Testing checks behavior under controlled conditions and separates real improvement from chance or expectation effects. | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 1-4 Wochen | 15-45 min | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-6 | 1-3 | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Async | Async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Experiment results, Decision log, Learning summary | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | ExperimentsGrowthAnalyticsValidation | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |