Moai Domain Ideation

Ideation Domain Specialist

Thin orchestrator for the Diverge-Converge ideation pipeline. Delegates creative framework execution to moai-foundation-thinking and adds artifact-shaping logic specific to the brain workflow: Lean Canvas section assembly and SPEC Decomposition List extraction.

Quick Reference

Core responsibilities:

• Phase 2 (Diverge): Generate 5-15 divergent concept angles for the idea
• Phase 4 (Converge): Assemble Lean Canvas into ideation.md with all 9 blocks
• Phase 6 (Proposal): Produce proposal.md with SPEC Decomposition Candidates section

Key invariants:

• [HARD] SPEC Decomposition Candidates grammar: - SPEC-{DOMAIN}-{NUM}: {scope} (see anchor below)
• [HARD] No tech-stack assumptions (language/framework agnostic) in any artifact
• [HARD] Lean Canvas always includes all 9 blocks (missing blocks get placeholder text)
• [HARD] SPEC IDs use generic domain labels (e.g., SPEC-API-001, SPEC-AUTH-001) — never language-specific (e.g., SPEC-FASTAPI-001)

Foundation reuse:

• Diverge step: delegates to moai-foundation-thinking modules/diverge-converge.md (Diverge phase)
• Converge step: delegates to moai-foundation-thinking modules/diverge-converge.md (Converge phase)
• Critical eval: delegates to moai-foundation-thinking modules/critical-evaluation.md

Phase 2: Diverge

Input

• Clarity-scored idea from Phase 1 Discovery
• User context from AskUserQuestion rounds

Process

Invoke moai-foundation-thinking Diverge-Converge framework (Diverge phase):

1. Generate 5-15 divergent angles for the idea. Each angle explores a different lens:

   • Core feature set angle (minimum viable product)
   • Target user segment angle (niche vs broad market)
   • Distribution channel angle (B2C, B2B, marketplace, API)
   • Revenue model angle (subscription, freemium, per-use, enterprise)
   • Technical differentiation angle (AI, real-time, offline-first, mobile-first)
   • Competitor gap angle (what existing tools fail to do)
   • Adjacent market angle (related problem space)

2. For each angle, produce a one-sentence concept label.

3. Cluster related angles by affinity (max 5 clusters).

Output

In-memory concept map. NOT persisted to disk at this phase — convergence in Phase 4 determines what is written.

Language Neutrality Rules

[HARD] During divergence, do NOT anchor any angle to a specific programming language or framework. Describe capabilities, not implementations:

• Correct: "real-time collaborative editing engine"
• Wrong: "Node.js WebSocket server with React frontend"

Phase 4: Converge — Lean Canvas Assembly

Input

• Phase 2 diverged concept map
• User's original idea
• Optional: brand context from .moai/project/brand/brand-voice.md

Process

Invoke moai-foundation-thinking Diverge-Converge framework (Converge phase) to reduce 5-15 angles to the single most defensible product concept.

Then assemble the Lean Canvas.

Lean Canvas — 9 Blocks

Populate each block for the converged concept. Every block MUST be present, even if sparse. Empty blocks get placeholder: [TBD — to be refined with user research].

## Lean Canvas

### Problem
[Top 3 problems this product solves for the target customer]

### Customer Segments
[Specific user personas — who has the problem most acutely?]

### Unique Value Proposition
[Single, clear, compelling message — why this over alternatives]

### Solution
[Top 3 features / capabilities that address the problems]

### Channels
[How the product reaches customers: direct, marketplace, viral, partnerships]

### Revenue Streams
[How value is monetized: subscription, freemium, per-use, enterprise license, API]

### Cost Structure
[Main cost drivers: infrastructure, people, acquisition, support]

### Key Metrics
[The numbers that tell you the product is succeeding — leading and lagging indicators]

### Unfair Advantage
[What is genuinely hard for competitors to copy? Network effect, data, brand, IP, team]

Language Neutrality in Solution Block

[HARD] The Solution block describes WHAT the product does, not HOW it is built:

• Correct: "High-throughput transformation engine that processes 10K events/sec"
• Wrong: "Python Pandas pipeline running on Airflow DAGs"

Output

Write ideation.md to .moai/brain/IDEA-NNN/:

# Idea: {user's original idea, verbatim}
*Session: {date}*

## Lean Canvas

[9 blocks as specified above]

Phase 5 Append: Critical Evaluation

After Phase 5 executes (managed by moai-foundation-thinking critical-evaluation.md), append the evaluation report to the existing ideation.md:

## Evaluation Report

### Strengths
[Evidence-backed strengths from critical evaluation]

### Weaknesses
[Identified gaps, assumptions, and risks]

### First Principles Validation
[First principles breakdown per moai-foundation-thinking/modules/first-principles.md]

### Verdict
[Proceed / Proceed with caveats / Revisit / Abandon — with rationale]

Phase 6: Proposal — SPEC Decomposition List

Input

• ideation.md with Lean Canvas + Evaluation Report
• User's confirmation to proceed

Process

Translate the converged product concept into actionable SPEC candidates. Each candidate represents a discrete, independently-implementable unit of work.

SPEC ID Naming Convention

[HARD] SPEC domain labels MUST be generic capability terms, never technology/language names:

Decomposition Heuristics

Suggest 2-10 SPEC candidates. Each candidate should:

1. Represent a cohesive capability boundary (not too granular, not too broad)
2. Be independently implementable without hard dependencies on sibling SPECs (except declared dependencies)
3. Represent 1-3 weeks of focused work (typical SPEC scope)
4. Address one of the Lean Canvas Solution blocks or a key infrastructure concern

If the idea is very small (single capability), 2-3 candidates is appropriate. If the idea is large, suggest 7-10 candidates and note that ordering matters.

Edge Case: 0 or 1 candidates

If the idea seems too atomic for SPEC decomposition:

• 0 candidates: Add placeholder section: ### SPEC Decomposition Candidates with note "Idea scope is atomic — consider direct /moai plan instead of /moai brain decomposition"
• 1 candidate: Acceptable, no special handling required

Output

Write proposal.md to .moai/brain/IDEA-NNN/:

# Proposal: {product name or concept label}
*Generated: {date} | Idea: IDEA-NNN*

## Product Summary

{2-3 sentence summary derived from Lean Canvas UVP + Solution blocks}

## Target User

{From Lean Canvas Customer Segments block}

## Core Problems Solved

{From Lean Canvas Problem block, formatted as numbered list}

## Proposed Solution

{From Lean Canvas Solution block — capabilities only, no tech stack}

## SPEC Decomposition Candidates

{2-10 bullets, each matching the canonical grammar below}

- SPEC-{DOMAIN}-001: {one-line scope description}
- SPEC-{DOMAIN}-002: {one-line scope description}
...

## Recommended Execution Order

{Numbered list of SPEC IDs in dependency order, with brief rationale}

## Out of Scope (v0.1)

{Explicit exclusions deferred to later SPECs or a v0.2 phase}

## Notes

{Any caveats, open questions, or assumptions from the evaluation}

Grammar Invariant (ANCHOR)

The ### SPEC Decomposition Candidates section MUST follow this exact grammar:

- SPEC-{DOMAIN}-{NUM}: {scope}

Where:

• {DOMAIN} is uppercase alphanumeric (e.g., AUTH, API, UI, DB, NOTIFY)
• {NUM} is zero-padded 3 digits (e.g., 001, 002, 010)
• {scope} is a plain English one-line description (no backticks, no nested lists)
• One bullet per line, no sub-bullets

The /moai plan --from-brain parser uses this regex: ^- SPEC-[A-Z][A-Z0-9]+-[0-9]{3}: .+$

Any bullet NOT matching this pattern is excluded from the suggestion list (surfaced as a warning, not an error).

Works Well With

• moai-foundation-thinking: Diverge-Converge, Critical Evaluation, First Principles modules
• moai-domain-research: Feeds research.md content into Converge phase context
• moai-domain-design-handoff: Consumes proposal.md product summary for prompt.md context section
• moai-workflow-brain: Orchestrates this skill across phases 2, 4, 5 (append), and 6

Common Rationalizations

Verification

• Phase 2 diverge produced 5-15 distinct angles (not minor variations of the same angle)
• Phase 4 Lean Canvas has all 9 blocks present (none omitted or collapsed)
• Solution block contains no technology/framework names (capability-only language)
• Phase 6 proposal.md contains ### SPEC Decomposition Candidates heading
• All SPEC candidates match grammar: - SPEC-{DOMAIN}-{NUM}: {scope}
• SPEC domain labels are capability-based (no technology names)
• proposal.md has no tech-stack assumptions outside of "Notes" section