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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Operations Fishbone Diagram |  UX Research Empathy Mapping |  Operations Failure Mode and Effects Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | When a lot is assumed about a target group but little is seen jointly, empathy mapping makes knowledge and gaps directly comparable. The picture also shows which assumptions hold up and where evidence is missing. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Low | High |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 30-60 min | 30–60 min | 2-6 h |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | 2-8 | 4-8 | 3-10 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Fishbone Diagram, Cause Categories, Investigation Backlog | Empathy Map, Assumptions List, Research Gaps | FMEA Table, Risk Priority, Mitigation Actions |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | Root causeQualityOperations | SynthesisQualitativeWorkshop | RiskQualityOperationsRoot cause |