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| Criterion | ![]() UX Research Customer Journey Mapping | ![]() Operations Root Cause Tree Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Argument Mapping | ![]() Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | For a problem with several suspected causes, the method builds a causal structure instead of a mere list. It makes visible how causes connect and where the strongest points of leverage lie. | When statements, evidence, and counterarguments get mixed up, a debate quickly loses its structure. Argument Mapping breaks a thesis down into its reasoning and makes visible what it really rests on. | When a problem keeps recurring and the cause stays unclear, the method exposes the underlying mechanism. It separates symptom, guess, and robust explanation from one another. |
Complexitysame | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 2-4 h | 1-3 h | 1-3 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 2-8 | 1-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Journey Map, Pain-point List, Opportunity Backlog | Cause Tree, Evidence Notes, Countermeasures | Argument Map, Evidence Gaps, Decision Rationale | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | JourneyServiceService design | Root causeTreeIncidentQuality | SensemakingDecisionRationale | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |



