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| Criterion |  Product Discovery Working Backwards |  Growth Flywheel |  Product Discovery Smoke Test |  Growth North Star Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When the target state and benefit need to be clear first, it thinks backward from the desired outcome into the product logic. It sharpens vision, objections, and value proposition before elaboration. | Growth often breaks down where a reinforcing mechanism builds up too much friction. A Flywheel shows the cycle of value, repetition, and reinforcement meant to sustain growth. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | When product teams track many metrics, the view of the actual customer outcome easily gets lost. A North Star Metric bundles growth, usage, and value contribution into one signal that makes the system's direction visible. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 4-8 h, mehrere Iterationen | 60-120 min | 1-5 Tage | 1-2 h |
Participantsdifferent | 2-6 | 3-8 | Nutzertraffic | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Future Press Release, FAQ, Vision Statement | Flywheel Map, Friction Points, Growth Levers, Experiment Backlog | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | North Star metric, Input metric tree, Measurement cadence |
Tagsno overlap | VisionNarrativeAlignment | GrowthRetentionConversion | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | GrowthMetricsAlignmentRetention |