From rafayels-engineering
Guides structured brainstorming to clarify requirements, explore user intent, approaches, trade-offs, and feature scope before implementing components or changes.
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This skill provides detailed process knowledge for effective brainstorming sessions that clarify **WHAT** to build before diving into **HOW** to build it.
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This skill provides detailed process knowledge for effective brainstorming sessions that clarify WHAT to build before diving into HOW to build it.
Brainstorming is valuable when:
Brainstorming can be skipped when:
Before diving into questions, assess whether brainstorming is needed.
Signals that requirements are clear:
Signals that brainstorming is needed:
If requirements are clear, suggest: "Your requirements seem clear. Consider proceeding directly to planning or implementation."
Ask questions one at a time to understand the user's intent. Avoid overwhelming with multiple questions.
Question Techniques:
Prefer multiple choice when natural options exist
Start broad, then narrow
Validate assumptions explicitly
Ask about success criteria early
Key Topics to Explore:
| Topic | Example Questions |
|---|---|
| Purpose | What problem does this solve? What's the motivation? |
| Users | Who uses this? What's their context? |
| Constraints | Any technical limitations? Timeline? Dependencies? |
| Success | How will you measure success? What's the happy path? |
| Edge Cases | What shouldn't happen? Any error states to consider? |
| Existing Patterns | Are there similar features in the codebase to follow? |
Exit Condition: Continue until the idea is clear OR user says "proceed" or "let's move on"
After understanding the idea, propose 2-3 concrete approaches.
Structure for Each Approach:
### Approach A: [Name]
[2-3 sentence description]
**Pros:**
- [Benefit 1]
- [Benefit 2]
**Cons:**
- [Drawback 1]
- [Drawback 2]
**Best when:** [Circumstances where this approach shines]
Guidelines:
Summarize key decisions in a structured format.
Design Doc Structure:
---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
topic: <kebab-case-topic>
---
# <Topic Title>
## What We're Building
[Concise description—1-2 paragraphs max]
## Why This Approach
[Brief explanation of approaches considered and why this one was chosen]
## Key Decisions
- [Decision 1]: [Rationale]
- [Decision 2]: [Rationale]
## Open Questions
- [Any unresolved questions for the planning phase]
## Next Steps
→ `/workflows:plan` for implementation details
Output Location: docs/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-brainstorm.md
Present clear options for what to do next:
/workflows:planDuring brainstorming, actively resist complexity:
Keep sections short—200-300 words maximum. After each section of output, pause to validate understanding:
This prevents wasted effort on misaligned designs.
| Anti-Pattern | Better Approach |
|---|---|
| Asking 5 questions at once | Ask one at a time |
| Jumping to implementation details | Stay focused on WHAT, not HOW |
| Proposing overly complex solutions | Start simple, add complexity only if needed |
| Ignoring existing codebase patterns | Research what exists first |
| Making assumptions without validating | State assumptions explicitly and confirm |
| Creating lengthy design documents | Keep it concise—details go in the plan |
Brainstorming answers WHAT to build:
Planning answers HOW to build it:
When brainstorm output exists, /workflows:plan should detect it and use it as input, skipping its own idea refinement phase.