Brainstorming Ideas Into Designs

Overview

Help turn ideas into fully formed designs 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, checking after each section whether it looks right.

The Process

Understanding the Idea

1. •Check out the current project state (files, docs, recent commits)
2. •Ask questions one at a time to refine the idea
3. •Prefer multiple choice questions when possible
4. •Only one question per message
5. •Focus on: purpose, constraints, success criteria

Exploring Approaches

1. •Propose 2-3 different approaches with trade-offs
2. •Lead with your recommended option and explain why
3. •Present options conversationally

Presenting the Design

1. •Once you understand what you're building, present the design
2. •Break it into sections of 200-300 words
3. •Ask after each section: "Does this look right so far?"
4. •Cover: architecture, components, data flow, error handling, testing
5. •Be ready to go back and clarify if something doesn't make sense

After the Design

Documentation

• •Write the validated design to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md
• •Commit the design document to git

Implementation (if continuing)

• •Ask: "Ready to set up for implementation?"
• •Use writing-plans skill to create detailed implementation plan

Key Principles

Common Mistakes

• •Asking multiple questions in one message
• •Jumping to implementation without full design
• •Not checking project context first
• •Presenting the entire design at once
• •Ignoring user's "actually..." signals