Brainstorming

Brainstorming

Turn ideas into fully formed designs before writing code.

Hard gate

Do not write code, scaffold projects, or invoke implementation skills until a design is presented and approved.

Process

1. Explore the current project context.
2. Ask clarifying questions one at a time.
3. Propose 2-3 approaches with trade-offs and a recommendation.
4. Present the design and get approval.
5. Write the design doc to docs/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md.
6. Run a self-review for placeholders, contradictions, ambiguity, and scope.
7. Ask the user to review the spec.
8. Transition to implementation via a planning step.

Principles

• One question at a time.
• Prefer multiple choice when possible.
• YAGNI: remove unnecessary features.
• Explore alternatives.
• Design for small, well-bounded units.

Design doc sections

• Problem and goals
• Scope
• Architecture
• Components and interfaces
• Data flow
• Error handling
• Testing approach

Notes

Even simple projects need a short design. The design can be a few sentences, but it must be explicit and approved.