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Criterion
Paper illustration of two people facing each other, speech bubbles and an open interview notebook.
UX Research
User Interviews
Paper illustration of two considered options leading to a decision record with a marked status and visible consequences.
Architecture
Architecture Decision Record
Paper illustration for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Operations
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis
Paper fishbone diagram with a measurable effect at the head and six labeled cause branches.
Operations
Fishbone Diagram
Purposedifferent
When teams derive needs only from assumptions and real motives are missing, user interviews give direct access to behavior and meaning. Conversations from the target group's everyday life make patterns, tensions, and open questions solidly visible.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.For a process, product, or service with noticeable failure risks, the method assesses possible failure modes in advance. It directs attention to combinations of occurrence, effect, and detectability.When a problem has several possible contributing factors, the method sorts causes by cause areas. It prevents an initial hunch from blocking the view of other plausible drivers.
Complexitydifferent
LowLowHighLow
Timedifferent
30–60 min per interview15-45 min2-6 h30-60 min
Participantsdifferent
1 participant per interview1-33-102-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncAsyncWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Interview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryADR File, Decision Log, RationaleFMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation ActionsFishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog
Tagsno overlap
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
ArchitectureRationaleDocumentationGovernance
RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause
Root causeQualityOperations
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