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| Criterion |  Decision Making Risk Matrix |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |  Architecture Architecture Decision Record |  Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a project faces many possible disruptions, it quickly becomes unclear which risks deserve attention first. It separates options, evaluation criteria, and open risks. The result is captured as a Risk Matrix and a Top Risk List. | 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. | An ADR permanently records an architecture decision with context, trade-offs, and consequence. It creates continuity for later changes because the decision path stays traceable. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | 45-90 min | 15-45 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | 2-8 | 1-3 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Risk Matrix, Top Risk List | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | RiskDecisionPrioritizationAssessment | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |