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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Innovation Lean Startup |  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. | For uncertain business assumptions, the method forces the idea into contact with real market reactions early. It separates wishful picture, assumption, and observable behavior, so that learning becomes faster than planning. This translates uncertainty into measurable insight. | 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 | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | Wochen bis Monate je Lernzyklus | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | Hypothesis list, MVPs, Learning reports, Pivot or persevere decision | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | LeanStartupValidationMVP | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |
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