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| Criterion |  Operations PDCA Cycle |  Innovation Design Thinking |  Product Discovery Outcome-Driven Innovation |  Innovation Design Sprint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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. | For complex user problems with an uncertain cause, the method connects observation, interpretation, and experiment into a learning cycle. It keeps the focus on real needs and avoids premature solution language. This produces robust decisions for product and service. | 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. | When the product question is unclear and time pressure is high, the method takes a team from an open idea to a testable solution. It connects problem understanding, decision, and learning in one compact format, lowering the risk of spending a lot of energy on a mere guess. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | High | High | High |
Timedifferent | 1 h bis mehrere Wochen | 1 Tag bis mehrere Wochen | Mehrere Wochen | 4-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | 1-8 | 4-10 | 2-6 researchers plus sample | 5-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | PDCA Log, Experiment Plan, Learning Outcome, Standard Change | Problem Statement, Prototype, Test Learnings | Desired outcome statements, Opportunity landscape, Segmentation by underserved needs, Innovation hypotheses | Prototype, Test Findings, Decision Rationale |
Tagsno overlap | Continuous improvementLeanExperiments | InnovationPrototypeResearch | OutcomesInnovationResearchQuantitative | Design sprintPrototypeValidationInnovation |