View methods side by side.
Choose up to four methods. Add them using the search and share the comparison by copying its link.
| Criterion | ![]() Product Discovery Smoke Test | ![]() Product Discovery Pretotyping | ![]() Operations 5 Whys |
|---|---|---|---|
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. | Pretotyping clarifies whether a customer problem and solution idea create enough real demand. It separates problem, assumption, solution, and evidence, and captures the result as a pretotyping sketch, test setup, and conversion data. | For a single, hard-to-explain deviation, the method exposes the causal chain behind the visible symptom. It keeps the cause open until a controllable condition emerges instead of a mere description. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 1-5 Tage | Stunden bis wenige Tage | 15-30 min |
Participantsdifferent | Nutzertraffic | 1-4 | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Pretotyping sketch, Test setup, Conversion data, Go or no-go decision | Root cause notes, Countermeasures |
Tagsno overlap | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | ValidationDemandMVP | Root causeIncidentLeanProblem solving |
Often compared together
Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.






