# Brainstorming

> You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.

- Skill: `majiayu000/brainstorming-8` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add majiayu000/brainstorming-8`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/majiayu000/brainstorming-8/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: majiayu000 (https://skillmd.com/u/majiayu000)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/majiayu000/brainstorming-8

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# Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

## Overview

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs and specs through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding the current project context, then ask questions one at a time to refine the idea. Once you understand what you're building, present the design in small sections (200-300 words), checking after each section whether it looks right so far.

## The Process

**Understanding the idea:**
- Check out the current project state first (files, docs, recent commits)
- Ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
- Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
- Only one question per message - if a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions
- Focus on understanding: purpose, constraints, success criteria

**Exploring approaches:**
- Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
- Present options conversationally with your recommendation and reasoning
- Lead with your recommended option and explain why

**Presenting the design:**
- Once you believe you understand what you're building, present the design
- Break it into sections of 200-300 words
- Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
- Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, state behavior, edge cases, testing
- Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

**Validating for testability (BDD readiness check):**

After the full design is presented and validated, run every design point through this checklist before finalizing:

| Dimension | Question to verify |
|---|---|
| Input/Output format | Are the exact formats of inputs and outputs specified? (data types, structure, encoding) |
| Error & exception scenarios | Is every failure mode explicitly described with its expected behavior? (not just the happy path) |
| Boundary & priority rules | When ambiguity or conflict can arise, are the resolution rules defined? (precedence, fallback, default values) |
| State behavior | Is it clear what state persists, what is isolated, and what resets? (sessions, variables, side effects) |
| Verifiable granularity | Can each behavior be independently tested with concrete steps and a single expected outcome? |
| Ambiguity check | Are there any implicit assumptions that different readers could interpret differently? |

**How to use the checklist:**
- For each design section, evaluate all 6 dimensions
- Any dimension that fails → go back to the user with a targeted question to fill the gap
- Do NOT silently assume defaults — if the PRD will be consumed downstream (e.g., converted to BDD test cases), ambiguity is a defect
- Only proceed to documentation once all design points pass all 6 dimensions
- Mark dimensions as "N/A" only when genuinely not applicable (e.g., stateless operations have no state behavior)

## After the Design

**Documentation:**
- Write the validated design to `docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md`
- Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available
- Commit the design document to git

**Implementation (if continuing):**
- Ask: "Ready to set up for implementation?"
- Use superpowers:using-git-worktrees to create isolated workspace
- Use superpowers:writing-plans to create detailed implementation plan

## Key Principles

- **One question at a time** - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
- **Multiple choice preferred** - Easier to answer than open-ended when possible
- **YAGNI ruthlessly** - Remove unnecessary features from all designs
- **Explore alternatives** - Always propose 2-3 approaches before settling
- **Incremental validation** - Present design in sections, validate each
- **Be flexible** - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense