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| Criterion |  Innovation How Might We |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Engineering Failure Scenario Analysis |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | In critical processes, it is not enough to plan only for the normal case. Failure Scenario Analysis looks at the path into failure and shows which failures, chains, and control gaps cause the most damage. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30–45 min | 45-90 min | 1-3 h | 20–45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 2-8 | 3-8 | Small cross-functional group |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | HMW Questions, Challenge Framing, Idea Prompts | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Failure Scenarios, Risk Notes, Control Gaps, Test and Response Actions | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log |
Tagsno overlap | FramingOpportunityIdeationQuestions | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | FailureResilienceRisk | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning |