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Criterion
Visual Management workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Operations
Visual Management
Paper matrix with six colored hat cards for information, feeling, value, caution, ideas and process control.
Facilitation
Six Thinking Hats
Paper illustration of a decision table with criteria rows, weighted ratings, and a narrowly leading alternative.
Decision Making
Decision Matrix
Paper illustration for Trade-off Analysis.
Decision Making
Trade-off Analysis
Purposedifferent
With high tempo and many parallel topics, the method makes status, deviations, and priorities visible at a glance. It reduces search effort and prevents what matters from getting lost in daily work.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.When several options collide with several criteria, comparison quickly becomes subjective. A Decision Matrix makes the trade-off visible and brings weighting, criteria, and options into a shared logic.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.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumMediumMedium
Timedifferent
Ongoing45-90 min45-90 min45-120 min
Participantsdifferent
1-204-122-82-8
Formatdifferent
Workshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Visual Board, Status Indicators, Exception CuesPerspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action ItemsDecision Matrix, Scoring Rationale, Selected OptionTrade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides
Tagsno overlap
SignalsOperationsVisual management
FacilitationOptionsDecision
DecisionCriteriaScoringTradeoffs
TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions
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