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| Criterion |  Growth North Star Metric |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Product Discovery Riskiest Assumption Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When product teams track many metrics, the view of the actual customer outcome easily gets lost. A North Star Metric bundles growth, usage, and value contribution into one signal that makes the system's direction visible. | 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 demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | When an idea hinges on one critical unknown, it prioritizes testing that exact piece of uncertainty first. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence. The result is captured as a prioritized list of assumptions, a test plan, and a result report. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-2 h | 45-90 min | 1-5 Tage | 1-2 Wochen pro Iteration |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 2-8 | Nutzertraffic | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | North Star metric, Input metric tree, Measurement cadence | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Prioritized Assumption List, Test Plan, Results Report |
Tagsno overlap | GrowthMetricsAlignmentRetention | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ExperimentsValidationDiscoveryAssumptions |