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| Criterion |  Product Strategy Lean Canvas |  Operations 5 Whys |  Delivery Value Stream Mapping |  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. | When delivery work dissolves into wait times, handoffs, and hidden effort, Value Stream Mapping makes the actual flow visible. The method exposes bottlenecks, idle time, and feedback loops so lead time and improvement levers become tangible. | 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 | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 15-30 min | 1-3 h | 1-4 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1-6 | 2-6 | 4-10 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Lean Canvas, Core Assumptions, Experiment Backlog | Root cause notes, Countermeasures | Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck list | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan |
Tagsno overlap | StartupLeanAssumptionsBusiness model | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving | LeanFlowWasteDelivery | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident |