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| Criterion |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Decision Making Constraint Analysis |  Decision Making Decision Tree |  Facilitation Six Thinking Hats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | With limited resources, quality, speed, cost, and risk almost always compete with each other. Trade-off Analysis makes these tensions explicit and prevents decisions from producing hidden side effects. | When an initiative stalls, the limit often lies not in the idea but in hard or soft boundary conditions. Constraint Analysis separates these limits and shows which of them can actually be shaped. | 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. | When a topic gets stuck too quickly in the same thinking mode, Six Thinking Hats deliberately separates the perspectives. This means facts, risks, creativity, and emotional signals get worked through one after another instead of mixed together. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-120 min | 30-90 min | 30-90 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-8 | 2-8 | 1-6 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Constraint List, Hard/Soft Classification, Option Impact Notes, Decision Boundaries | Decision Tree, Option Map, Assumption List | Perspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action Items |
Tags2 shared | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | ConstraintsDecisionPlanningOptions | DecisionTreeOptions | FacilitationOptionsDecision |