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| Criterion |  Facilitation Mind Mapping |  Facilitation Dot Voting |  Decision Making Decision Matrix |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a topic is still unclear and too many thoughts surface at once, Mind Mapping creates an open surface for ordering them. It makes connections, subtopics, and starting points visible without fixing them too early. | When a workshop has produced too many options and the group needs to condense quickly, dot voting makes preferences visible in a short time. It bundles individual votes into a solid signal for the next selection. | When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic. | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 15-45 min | 5-15 min | 45-90 min | 45-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-10 | 3-20 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Mind Map, Topic Clusters, Open Questions | Ranked list, Consensus signal, Shortlist | Decision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected Option | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides |
Tagsno overlap | BrainstormingIdeasMappingStructureFacilitation | FacilitationVotingConsensusPrioritization | DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions |