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Criterion
Paper illustration of a Lean Canvas with nine fields, notes, and one highlighted learning risk.
Product Strategy
Lean Canvas
Paper illustration with architecture components and concrete change tasks for comparison.
Architecture
SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
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.SAAM helps teams judge an architecture’s suitability for selected tasks and changes. It is particularly useful for examining modifiability and comparing architecture alternatives with clear reasoning.ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification.When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighMediumMedium
Timedifferent
45-90 minPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional45-60 min
Participantsdifferent
1-6Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weightingDesigners, developers as users, and facilitation2-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Lean Canvas, Core Assumptions, Experiment BacklogDomain functions mapped to components and connections, Quality attributes and evaluation criteria, Typical tasks and their effects on the architecture, Reasoned evaluation or comparison of alternativesPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsAssumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking
Tagsno overlap
StartupLeanAssumptionsBusiness model
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation
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