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| Criterion | ![]() Systems Thinking Theory of Constraints Thinking Process | ![]() Decision Making Decision Tree | ![]() Decision Making Assumption Surfacing | ![]() Product Discovery Assumption Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | The Theory of Constraints Thinking Process exposes a system's bottleneck and the logic behind it. It suits situations where many symptoms trace back to the same limiting relationship. | 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. | 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. | When assumptions still sit unordered in the room, it weighs uncertainty against leverage. It makes visible which hypotheses should be checked first. |
Complexitydifferent | High | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 0.5-3 Tage | 30-90 min | 45-90 min | 45-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 4-10 | 1-6 | 2-8 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Current Reality Logic, Conflict Cloud, Future Reality Tree, Implementation Obstacles | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan | Assumption map, Test backlog, Risk ranking |
Tagsno overlap | Theory of ConstraintsConstraintsSystems thinkingCausality | DecisionTreeOptions | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery | AssumptionsRiskExperimentsValidation |



