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| Criterion |  UX Research Customer Journey Mapping |  Systems Thinking Current Reality Tree |  Operations Barrier Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a user journey falls apart across many touchpoints, customer journey mapping makes the experience visible as a coherent arc. Phases, emotions, and breaks become legible enough to prioritize critical moments deliberately. | A Current Reality Tree condenses many symptoms into a few causal chains. The method makes visible which core problems drive several negative effects at once. | For a risk that can only be managed through multiple layers of protection, the method examines the effectiveness of each barrier. It shows where safeguards are missing, too weak, or fail under real conditions. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | High | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h | 2-6 h | 2-4 h | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 3-8 | 2-6 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Journey Map, Pain-point List, Opportunity Backlog | Current Reality Tree, Core Problems, Intervention Ideas | Barrier Inventory, Failure Analysis per Barrier, Action Backlog | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | JourneyServiceService design | Systems thinkingRoot causeConstraintsCausality | Root causeSafetyIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |