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| Criterion |  Architecture Request for Comments |  UX Research User Interviews |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | An RFC clarifies architecture context, options, and consequences. It structures technical context, alternatives, tradeoffs, open questions, and review feedback, and captures the result as an RFC document, reviewer comments, and a decision rationale. | When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-3 Wochen vom Draft bis zur Entscheidung | 30–60 min per interview | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-20 Reviewer | 1 participant per interview | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | RFC document, Reviewer comments, Decision rationale, Follow-up ADR or tickets | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | ArchitectureDecisionAsyncGovernance | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |
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