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| Criterion |  Innovation How Might We |  Product Discovery Pretotyping |  Innovation Lean Startup |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | Pretotyping clarifies whether a customer problem and solution idea create enough real demand. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence, and captures the result as a pretotyping sketch, test setup, and conversion data. | 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 | Low | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 30–45 min | Stunden bis wenige Tage | Wochen bis Monate je Lernzyklus | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 1-4 | 2-8 | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async |
Outputdifferent | HMW Questions, Challenge Framing, Idea Prompts | Pretotyping sketch, Test setup, Conversion data, Go or no-go decision | Hypothesis list, MVPs, Learning reports, Pivot or persevere decision | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note |
Tagsno overlap | FramingOpportunityIdeationQuestions | ValidationDemandMVP | LeanStartupValidationMVP | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth |