Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

When to use this skill

• •Starting a new feature or component
• •Turning an abstract idea into a concrete spec
• •Clarifying requirements before coding
• •Modifying complex existing behavior

Principles

• •One question at a time: Never overwhelm the user. Ask one clear question per message.
• •Multiple choice preferred: Reduce cognitive load by offering options (A, B, C).
• •Incremental validation: Present designs in small chunks (200-300 words) and get "looks good" before moving on.
• •YAGNI: Ruthlessly cut unnecessary features.
• •Explore alternatives: Always propose 2-3 approaches with trade-offs before settling on one.

Workflow

1. Understand the Goal

• •Context Check: Read relevant files, docs, and recent commits to ground yourself.
• •Clarify: Ask widely scoped questions to narrow down the user's intent.
  • •Constraint: Ask ONLY ONE question per turn.
  • •Tip: "What is the primary goal of X?" "Do you prefer approach A or B?"

2. Explore Approaches

• •Once the goal is clear, propose 2-3 implementation strategies.
• •List trade-offs (Pros/Cons) for each.
• •State your recommended approach and why.
• •Wait for user selection/approval.

3. Develop the Design

• •Drafting: Create the design document iteratively in the chat.
• •Chunking: Break it down into:
  • •Architecture/Data Flow
  • •Component Structure
  • •State Management
  • •Edge Cases & Error Handling
• •Validation: After each section, ask: "Does this look right so far?"

4. Final Output

• •Once agreed, write the full design to a file.
• •Path: docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md (Create the docs/plans directory if needed).
• •Format: Markdown with clear headers.

Transition to Implementation

• •Ask: "Ready to create the implementation plan?"
• •If yes, use the planning skill to break the design into tasks.