View methods side by side.
Choose up to four methods. Add them using the search and share the comparison by copying its link.
| Criterion | ![]() Systems Thinking Rich Picture | ![]() Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Constraint Analysis | ![]() Decision Making Decision Tree |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | A Rich Picture brings an unclear situation onto a shared drawing. It captures actors, tensions, information flows, and blind spots before the team jumps to solutions too early. | CATWOE structures a problem from six viewpoints and prevents too narrow a view of the situation. Different experiences of the system become comparably discussable this way. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | For decisions with follow-on paths and dependencies, a linear comparison is often not enough. A Decision Tree shows how options branch under conditions and which consequences hang on each branch. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 45-90 min | 30-90 min | 30-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-10 | 3-8 | 2-8 | 1-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | DecisionTreeOptions |



