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| Criterion |  UX Research Personas |  Innovation Lean Startup |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Product Discovery Fake Door Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When target groups stay too vague and teams talk about the same people differently, personas create a shared, solid picture of usage. Condensed profiles make needs, contexts, and differences tangible enough for decisions. | For uncertain business assumptions, the method forces the idea into contact with real market reactions early. It separates wishful picture, assumption, and observable behavior, so that learning becomes faster than planning. This translates uncertainty into measurable insight. | 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 demand is still unclear, it measures interest in a feature before it is built. It separates real behavior from polite agreement and deliberately keeps build effort small. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Tage | Wochen bis Monate je Lernzyklus | 1-5 Tage | 1-5 Tage |
Participantsdifferent | Internes Team | 2-8 | Nutzertraffic | Nutzertraffic |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Async |
Outputdifferent | Persona Profiles, Needs Summary, Scenario Notes | Hypothesis list, MVPs, Learning reports, Pivot or persevere decision | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Click Data, Interest Signal, Learning Decision |
Tagsno overlap | ResearchCustomerSynthesis | LeanStartupValidationMVP | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ValidationExperimentsDemandDiscovery |