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| Criterion |  Engineering Golden Path |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Product Discovery Fake Door 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 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. | 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. | When demand is still unclear, it measures interest in a feature before it is built. It separates real behavior from polite agreement and deliberately keeps build effort small. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage Setup, laufend | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | 1-5 Tage | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 1-8 | Nutzertraffic | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Golden Path Guide, Templates, Quality Checks | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Click Data, Interest Signal, Learning Decision |
Tagsno overlap | EngineeringProductivityGovernance | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ValidationExperimentsDemandDiscovery |