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.

<HARD-GATE> 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. </HARD-GATE>

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

Every project goes through this process. "Simple" projects are where unexamined assumptions cause the most wasted work. The design can be short, 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, including test strategy, error handling approach, and verification criteria (see Quality Principles below), get user approval after each section
5. Write design doc — save to .claude/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-design.md and commit
6. Transition to implementation — invoke writing-plans skill to create implementation plan

Quality Principles

Plans produced by this skill should address these concerns at design time:

• Test strategy: [references/tdd-principles.md](references/tdd-principles.md)
• Error handling & debugging approach: [references/debugging-principles.md](references/debugging-principles.md)
• Verification criteria: [references/verification-principles.md](references/verification-principles.md)

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.

For detailed process steps (questioning technique, design presentation, documentation, key principles), see [references/detailed-process.md](references/detailed-process.md).