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