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| Criterion |  Product Strategy Lean Canvas |  Operations 5 Whys |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When an early product bet still has too many open points, it brings target group, problem, and assumptions into a single view. It condenses the idea so core risks become nameable. | 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. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 45-90 min | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 2-6 | 2-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Lean Canvas, Core Assumptions, Experiment Backlog | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | StartupLeanAssumptionsBusiness model | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |