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| Criterion | ![]() Product Discovery Smoke Test | ![]() Architecture Architecture Decision Record | ![]() Architecture arc42 | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | 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. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | 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 | 1-5 Tage | 15-45 min | 1-2 Tage | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | Nutzertraffic | 1-3 | 1-4 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | ADR File, Decision Log, Rationale | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |



