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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 for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Decision Tree method illustration showing its working structure
Decision Making
Decision Tree
Paper illustration of an assumption matrix with prioritized test cards
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.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.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.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMediumLow
Timedifferent
30–60 min per interview45-120 min30-90 min45-90 min
Participantsdifferent
1 participant per interview2-81-62-8
Formatsame
Workshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Interview Notes, Themes, Insight SummaryTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted DownsidesDecision Tree, Option Map, Assumption ListAssumption List, Critical Assumptions, Learning Plan
Tagsno overlap
QualitativeResearchCustomerDiscovery
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
DecisionTreeOptions
AssumptionsRiskDecisionDiscovery
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