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| Criterion |  Operations Visual Management |  Decision Making Trade-off Analysis |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Facilitation Six Thinking Hats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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. | 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. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | Ongoing | 45-120 min | 1-2 h | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 1-20 | 2-8 | 4-12 | 4-12 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Visual Board, Status Indicators, Exception Cues | Trade-off Matrix, Criteria List, Decision Rationale, Accepted Downsides | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | Perspective Notes, Decision Inputs, Action Items |
Tagsno overlap | SignalsOperationsVisual management | TradeoffsDecisionCriteriaOptions | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | FacilitationOptionsDecision |