brainstorming

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 and get user approval.

Do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write any code, scaffold any project, or take any implementation action until you have presented a design and the user has approved it. This applies to EVERY project regardless of perceived simplicity. NEVER use the AskUserQuestion tool or any structured/interactive question tool during brainstorming. ALL questions MUST be asked as plain conversational prose. "Multiple choice" means presenting options inline in natural language — never as a tool call or structured prompt.

Anti-Pattern: "This Is Too Simple To Need A Design"

Every project goes through this process. A todo list, a single-function utility, a config change — all of them. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short (a few sentences for truly simple projects), but you MUST present it and get approval.

Checklist

You MUST create a task for each of these items and complete them in order:

1. Explore project context — check files, docs, recent commits
2. Ask clarifying questions — one at a time, understand purpose/constraints/success criteria
3. Propose 2-3 approaches — with trade-offs and your recommendation
4. Present design — in sections scaled to their complexity, get user approval after each section
5. Write design doc — if the obsidian:vault skill is available, save there; otherwise default to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md; if in a Git repo, ask the user before committing
6. Transition to implementation — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Process Flow

digraph brainstorming {
    "Explore project context" [shape=box];
    "Ask clarifying questions" [shape=box];
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" [shape=box];
    "Present design sections" [shape=box];
    "User approves design?" [shape=diamond];
    "Write design doc" [shape=box];
    "Invoke writing-plans skill" [shape=doublecircle];

    "Explore project context" -> "Ask clarifying questions";
    "Ask clarifying questions" -> "Propose 2-3 approaches";
    "Propose 2-3 approaches" -> "Present design sections";
    "Present design sections" -> "User approves design?";
    "User approves design?" -> "Present design sections" [label="no, revise"];
    "User approves design?" -> "Write design doc" [label="yes"];
    "Write design doc" -> "Invoke writing-plans skill";
}

The terminal state is invoking writing-plans. Do NOT invoke frontend-design, mcp-builder, or any other implementation skill. The ONLY skill you invoke after brainstorming is writing-plans.

Core principle: When new information invalidates your approach, going backward is faster than patching forward.

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
• Present all questions conversationally in natural language - NEVER EVER use AskUserQuestion tool when asking questions with this skill
• "Multiple choice" means conversational options with reasoning, not structured prompts
• Example: "I see three approaches: (1) Redis, (2) in-memory, (3) file-based. I'd lean toward Redis because... Thoughts?"
• 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
• Scale each section to its complexity: a few sentences if straightforward, up to 200-300 words if nuanced
• Ask after each section whether it looks right so far
• Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
• Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

When to Go Backward

You can and should revisit earlier steps when:

• Partner reveals new constraint during exploration or design → Go back to understanding
• Validation shows fundamental gap in what you're building → Go back to asking questions
• Partner questions your approach during design → Go back to exploring alternatives
• Something doesn't make sense → Stop and clarify

Don't force forward progression when going backward would give better results.

This is not about being "stuck" - it's about getting clarity before continuing.

Red Flags - Stop and Go Back

If you catch yourself thinking any of these, STOP and go backward:

• "The architecture stays mostly the same, just swap X for Y"
• "I can adapt what I already presented"
• "Going back wastes the work I've done"
• "It's just a small constraint, I can work around it"

Reality: When fundamental constraints change, adapting forward = patching over the wrong approach.

After the Design

Documentation:

• If the obsidian:vault skill is available, use it to save the design document to the vault
• Otherwise, write the validated design to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
• Use elements-of-style:writing-clearly-and-concisely skill if available
• If saving to a Git repository, ask the user before committing

Implementation:

• Invoke the writing-plans skill to create a detailed implementation plan
• Do NOT invoke any other skill. writing-plans is the next step.

Key Principles

• One question at a time - Don't overwhelm with multiple questions
• Conversational options preferred - Offer numbered choices inline in prose (never via a tool); 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, get approval before moving on
• Be flexible - Go back and clarify when something doesn't make sense