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| Criterion |  Product Discovery Outcome-Driven Innovation |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Operations Root Cause Analysis |  Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Outcome-Driven Innovation clarifies customer problems, solution opportunities, and evidence. It separates jobs, desired outcomes, importance, satisfaction, and opportunity, and captures results as desired outcome statements, an opportunity landscape, and segments by underserved needs. | For an improvement that still has to prove itself in everyday work, the method runs it through small learning loops. It connects planning, checking, and standardization into a repeatable learning mode. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Low | Medium | Low |
Timedifferent | Mehrere Wochen | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | 1-4 h | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-6 researchers plus sample | 1-8 | 3-8 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Desired outcome statements, Opportunity landscape, Segmentation by underserved needs, Innovation hypotheses | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Problem Statement, Cause Hypotheses, Confirmed Causes, Action Plan | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | OutcomesInnovationResearchQuantitative | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | Root causeProblem solvingQualityIncident | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |