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| Criterion | ![]() Product Strategy Product Canvas | ![]() Operations Fishbone Diagram | ![]() Decision Making Assumption Surfacing | ![]() Operations Kepner-Tregoe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When product goal and feature scope don't yet fit cleanly together, it creates a shared working picture. It connects need, core features, and assumptions into a solid starting point. | When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers. | 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. | For a disturbance that's hard to pin down, the method cleanly separates problem, cause, and decision. It reduces mixing when symptoms allow several interpretations. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 1-2 h | 30-60 min | 45-90 min | 2-8 h |
Participantssame | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Product Canvas, Product Assumptions, Scope Notes | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Plan |
Tagsno overlap | CanvasDiscoveryScope | Root causeQualityOperations | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | Problem solvingRoot causeDecisionOperations |



