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| Criterion |  UX Research User Interviews |  Decision Making Pre-Mortem |  Architecture arc42 |  Decision Making Assumption Surfacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | In early initiatives with many uncertainties, planning quickly turns too optimistic. A pre-mortem makes the expected failure visible in advance and sharpens the view of causes, gaps, and countermeasures. | arc42 structures architecture knowledge so teams can document system, decisions, and risks consistently. The template builds a living understanding of the architecture instead of scattered notes. | 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. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 30–60 min per interview | 20–45 min | 1-2 Tage | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1 participant per interview | Small cross-functional group | 1-4 | 2-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Interview Notes, Themes, Insight Summary | Risk list, Mitigation plan, Assumption log | Architecture Document, Context View, Runtime View, Deployment View | Assumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan |
Tagsno overlap | QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery | RiskDecisionFailurePlanning | ArchitectureDocumentationCommunication | AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery |