Brainstorming

Overview

Quick, interactive ideation for exploring problems and generating solutions. Focus on speed, quantity, and dialogue - not lengthy analysis.

When to Use

• User asks: "подумай", "поміркуй", "brainstorm this"
• Need to explore problem space rapidly
• Generate multiple ideas quickly
• Uncover hidden insights or issues
• User explicitly requests brainstorming

Core Principles

1. Quantity over quality - Generate many ideas fast
2. No judgment during ideation - Wild ideas welcome
3. Interactive - Communicate with user frequently
4. Iterative - Build on ideas through dialogue
5. Fast - Minutes, not hours

Workflow

Step 1: Rapid Dump (1-2 minutes)

Immediately generate 5-10 initial ideas without overthinking:

Quick ideas:
• [Idea 1]
• [Idea 2]
• [Idea 3]
• [Idea 4]
• [Idea 5]
...

Rules:

• Write first idea that comes to mind
• No filtering or judgment
• Include obvious AND wild ideas
• One line per idea

Step 2: Communicate & Explore

Share ideas with user and ask:

• Which direction interests you?
• What concerns do you have?
• What am I missing?
• Should we explore deeper or pivot?

Keep it conversational - don't wait to have "perfect" analysis.

Step 3: Iterate Based on Feedback

Depending on user response:

• Expand promising direction - Generate more variations
• Find problems - What could break? What's risky?
• Challenge assumptions - What if we did opposite?
• Combine ideas - Mix two approaches

Step 4: Quick Synthesis (when needed)

If user asks for recommendation, provide:

Top pick: [Option X]
Why: [1-2 sentence reason]
Next step: [Immediate action]

Keep it short - avoid long justifications unless requested.

Techniques

Random Prompts

• "What if we did the opposite?"
• "How would [different domain] solve this?"
• "What's the simplest version?"
• "What's the most expensive/complex version?"

SCAMPER (quick version)

• Substitute - swap components
• Combine - merge ideas
• Adapt - borrow from elsewhere
• Modify - change scale/attribute
• Put to other use - repurpose
• Eliminate - remove parts
• Reverse - flip it around

5 Whys (fast)

Ask "why?" 3-5 times to find root issue.

Perspective Shifts

• User perspective
• Developer perspective
• Future-self perspective

Output Style

Good:

Ideas:
• Use caching
• Pre-compute results
• Lazy load data

Which feels right? Or should we explore something else?

Bad:

# Comprehensive Analysis of Caching Strategies

After extensive research into caching mechanisms, we can evaluate several approaches...

[5 more paragraphs]

Anti-Patterns

• ❌ Writing long analysis before sharing ideas
• ❌ Waiting for "complete" answer before engaging user
• ❌ Judging ideas during generation phase
• ❌ Fixating on first solution
• ❌ Over-explaining instead of asking

Example Session

User: "подумай як зробити швидший пошук"

Skill:

Ideas for faster search:
• Add database indexes
• Cache popular queries
• Use full-text search engine (Elasticsearch)
• Pre-compute search results
• Reduce search scope with filters
• Client-side filtering for small datasets

Which direction makes sense for your use case?
How much data are we talking about?

User: "Maybe 10K items, need instant results"

Skill:

For 10K items, instant results:

Top 3 approaches:
• Client-side search (send all data, filter in browser) - simplest
• Add indexes + optimize query - medium effort
• Redis cache for popular searches - fastest for repeated queries

Concerns:
• 10K items might be too much for client-side if complex objects
• Need to know query patterns

What kind of queries? Full-text? Exact match? Filters?

Notes

• Brainstorming is dialogue, not monologue
• Share incomplete thoughts - perfection kills speed
• Ask questions frequently
• User steers direction, not you
• Stop when user has enough to proceed