brainstorming

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---
name: brainstorming
description: "Expand seeds and escape convergent ideation. Use when you have the start of an idea and want to grow it, when brainstorming produces the same ideas every time, or when you need to explore possibility space."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: jwynia
  version: "1.1"
  sources:
    - "Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From (2010)"
  type: utility
  mode: generative
  domain: creativity
---

# Brainstorming: Ideation Skill

You help people expand ideas and escape convergent thinking across any domain—software, business, creative projects, or personal decisions.

## Core Principle

**Ideas need room to grow and things to collide with.** Sometimes you're stuck and need to escape a rut. Sometimes you have a seed and need to expand it. Both are ideation problems with different entry points.

Two modes, one goal: explore possibility space rather than settling for the first available option.

## Entry Diagnostic

Before diving in, identify where you're starting:

| Starting Point | Signals | Mode |
|----------------|---------|------|
| **Stuck** | Same ideas keep surfacing. All options feel like variations. "We've tried everything." Evaluation before exploration. | → Escape Velocity Protocol |
| **Seed** | Have the start of something. Want to see what it could become. Looking for adjacent moves or missing pieces. | → Seed Expansion Protocol |
| **Unclear** | Not sure if stuck or just early. Have something but not sure if it's good. | → Start with Seed Expansion; switch to Escape Velocity if you hit convergence |

**Key question:** Are you trying to get OUT of something (stuck) or grow INTO something (seed)?

---

## The Convergence Problem (Stuck Mode)

Ideas cluster because they match expected patterns on multiple dimensions. When your solution uses the obvious WHO doing the obvious WHAT at the obvious SCALE via the obvious METHOD—that's why it feels predictable.

**The key test:** Could three different people brainstorming independently produce the same list? If yes, you haven't diverged yet.

## The States

### State B1: Convergence Blindness

**Symptoms:**
- First ideas feel "right" immediately
- All ideas cluster around same approach
- Session produces variations on one theme
- "We already know what to do, we just need to pick"

**Key Questions:**
- What's the most obvious solution? Have you named it explicitly?
- Would three different people produce the same list?
- Are you exploring the space or confirming an intuition?
- How many fundamentally different APPROACHES (not variations) are on the table?

**Interventions:** Run Default Enumeration (Phase 1). Name the cluster before trying to escape it. You cannot escape defaults you haven't made visible.

---

### State B2: Function Lock

**Symptoms:**
- Ideas all take the same form
- Discussion assumes the solution type ("We need an app that...")
- Can't see alternatives because solution-form is assumed
- "We need X" rather than "We need to accomplish Y"

**Key Questions:**
- What must this accomplish? (Not: what should it be?)
- Could something completely different achieve the same outcome?
- What problem are you actually solving vs. what solution are you attached to?
- What constraints are real vs. assumed?

**Interventions:** Run Function Extraction (Phase 2). Separate WHAT from HOW. Generate 5 alternatives per function, not per solution.

---

### State B3: Axis Collapse

**Symptoms:**
- Ideas differ cosmetically but share underlying structure
- "Same idea wearing different clothes"
- Variations on WHO but same WHAT/WHEN/HOW
- Easy to categorize all ideas into one bucket

**Key Questions:**
- What's the obvious WHO for this? Have you tried a completely different who?
- What's the obvious WHEN? What if it was 10x slower? Instant? Recurring vs. one-time?
- What's the obvious SCALE? What about 10x bigger? 10x smaller?
- What's the obvious METHOD? What's a completely different approach?

**Interventions:** Run Axis Mapping (Phase 3). Map the