Apart from maximizing design flexibility, additive manufacturing (AM) also enables broad microstructural and compositional flexibility due to its unique process thermodynamics. It is possible to engineer distinctive heterogeneous and hierarchical microstructures in AM processed material. Due to the activation of multiple strengthening mechanisms, paradoxical mechanical responses such as high strength-ductility synergy are observed in such microstructures. Conventional macro-mechanical testing cannot delineate complex deformation behavior at various length scales. The presentation introduces a unique combination of high-resolution nanoindentation mapping and microstructural analysis to provide insight into the strengthening mechanisms occurring at the microscopic length scale. This approach serves as an efficient and high-throughput tool to understand the underlying micro-mechanisms in the AM processed materials. The values obtained by nanoindentation are unaffected by AM processing defects and helps to evaluate the full strengthening potential of the material.