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| Criterion | ![]() Innovation How Might We | ![]() Decision Making Assumption Surfacing | ![]() Decision Making Decision Tree | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With a stuck problem carrying many implicit assumptions, the method translates observations into open, workable questions. It sharpens the problem frame without pre-thinking the solution, turning frustration or fuzziness into a search space with clear direction. | Plans often contain assumptions that were never openly stated and remain dangerous precisely because of that. Assumption Surfacing makes these silent premises visible and prioritizes which of them carry the initiative or could sink it. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30–45 min | 45-90 min | 30-90 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 2-8 | 1-6 | 2-8 |
Formatsame | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | HMW Questions, Challenge Framing, Idea Prompts | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | FramingOpportunityIdeationQuestions | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | DecisionTreeOptions | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |



