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Criterion
A hypothetical failure makes concrete risks, signals, and fitting mitigations visible.
Decision Making
Pre-Mortem
Paper illustration for Alignment Mapping.
Facilitation
Alignment Mapping
Paper illustration for Smoke Test.
Product Discovery
Smoke Test
Paper illustration of a calm four-quadrant Assumption Map with hypothesis cards and emphasis on important assumptions with little evidence.
Product Discovery
Assumption Mapping
Purposedifferent
In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures.When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable.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 assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumLowMedium
Timedifferent
20–45 min1-2 h1-5 Tage45-60 min
Participantsdifferent
Small cross-functional group4-12Nutzertraffic2-8
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshopAsyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption logAlignment Map, Open Issues, Decision QuestionsInterest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning NoteAssumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking
Tagsno overlap
RiskDecisionFailurePlanning
AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation
ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth
AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation
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