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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)
Paper illustration of Five-Minute VC Check with its method-specific working model.
Business Strategy
5-Minuten VC-Check
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.The 5-Minute VC Check clarifies opportunities and strategic options at the earliest idea stage. It compares problem quality, customer willingness to pay, alternatives, differentiation, and market potential, and captures the result as a VC-check note, go/sharpen/park decision, and risk list.
Complexitydifferent
MediumHighLow
Timedifferent
45-90 minPreparation, scenario analysis, and findings review; effort depends on scope5-15 min
Participantsdifferent
1-6Architecture experts and stakeholders for scenarios and weighting1-5
Formatsame
Workshop + 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 alternativesVC-check note, Go/sharpen/park decision, Risk and assumption list, Next validation step
Tagsno overlap
StartupLeanAssumptionsBusiness model
ArchitectureChangeAnalysisComparisonQuality
StartupValidationCompetition
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.

Four paper stations connect system purpose, quality goals, risk cards and focused investigation with a target and gap profile.
Architecture
LASR (Lightweight Approach for Software Reviews)
Paper illustration of Lean Startup with its method-specific working model.
Innovation
Lean Startup
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