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| Criterion | ![]() Product Strategy SMART Goals | ![]() Business Strategy Strategy Map | ![]() Decision Making Assumption Surfacing | ![]() Decision Making Pre-Mortem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When goals are formulated too generally, it brings measurability, direction, and timing into shape. It prevents intentions from staying without clear verification. | A Strategy Map translates strategy into a few connected objectives across perspectives such as finance, customers, processes, and learning. This makes visible which capabilities and activities are meant to drive which results. | 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. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 15-30 min | 2-4 h workshop plus review | 45-90 min | 20–45 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-8 | 4-10 | 2-8 | Small cross-functional group |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | SMART Goal, Measurement Note, Deadline | Strategy Map, Objective Set, Cause-Effect Hypotheses | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log |
Tagsno overlap | GoalsPlanningMeasurementAlignment | AlignmentExecutionGoalsCausality | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning |



