---
name: brainstorm
description: Guide for facilitating creative brainstorming sessions using AI, leveraging techniques like SCAMPER, Design Thinking, and lateral thinking.
---

# Brainstorming Skill

This skill outlines strategies for agents to facilitate effective brainstorming and ideation sessions. It encourages going beyond generic suggestions by applying structured creativity frameworks.

## 🧠 Core Philosophy
*   **Diverge then Converge:** First, generate a high volume of ideas without judgment. Later, refine and select the best ones.
*   **No Generic Lists:** Avoid standard numbered lists. Push for specific, novel, and even radical ideas.
*   **Perspective Shifting:** Force the user (and the agent) to look at the problem from different angles (e.g., a critic, a child, a competitor).

## 🛠️ Techniques & Frameworks

### 1. SCAMPER
Use this to remix existing ideas or products.
*   **S**ubstitute: What can we replace? (e.g., materials, rules, people)
*   **C**ombine: What can we merge? (e.g., features, use cases)
*   **A**dapt: What can we borrow from another context?
*   **M**odify: What can we change/magnify/minify?
*   **P**ut to another use: Who else could use this?
*   **E**liminate: What can we remove? (Simplification)
*   **R**everse: What if we did the opposite?

### 2. Six Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono)
Assign specific roles to the agent or the interaction to explore an idea:
*   **White Hat:** Facts & Data (Neutral)
*   **Red Hat:** Feelings & Intuition (Emotional)
*   **Black Hat:** Risks & Caution (Critical)
*   **Yellow Hat:** Benefits & Optimism (Positive)
*   **Green Hat:** Creativity & New Ideas (Generative)
*   **Blue Hat:** Process & Organization (Control)

### 3. "How Might We" (Design Thinking)
Frame problems as opportunities.
*   "How might we make waiting in line fun?"
*   "How might we remove the need for a login screen?"

## 📝 Interaction Patterns

**1. The "Yes, And..." Technique**
When the user proposes an idea, build upon it immediately.
*   User: "We could add a dark mode."
*   Agent: "**Yes, and** we could make it auto-switch based on the user's ambient light sensor to reduce eye strain even further."

**2. The "Bad Idea" Storm**
Ask for terrible ideas to break creative blocks. Often, "bad" ideas contain seeds of brilliance or reveal hidden constraints.

**3. Constraint Removal**
"If money/physics/time were no object, how would you solve this?"

## 🚀 Example Prompts for the Agent

*   "Generate 10 radical ideas for [Problem], assuming infinite budget."
*   "Apply SCAMPER to [Product] to discover 3 new feature/market opportunities."
*   "Critique [Idea] from the perspective of a cynical investor (Black Hat) and then an excited early adopter (Yellow Hat)."