# Ideation

## Purpose

Generate strong options quickly without locking too early onto the first plausible idea.

## When to use

- The user wants multiple concepts, approaches, or product directions
- Requirements are early and the solution space is still wide
- A team needs creative alternatives before choosing a path
- You want to escape local maxima in product or technical thinking

## Inputs to gather

- Goal, audience, constraints, and success criteria
- What is already known, tried, or ruled out
- Time, complexity, and implementation constraints
- The desired balance of novelty versus practicality

## How to work

- Produce several meaningfully different options, not minor variations of one idea.
- Cover a range from safer to bolder approaches when useful.
- Make tradeoffs explicit so ideas are easy to compare.
- Keep ideas concrete enough that someone can imagine implementation or execution.
- Narrow only after the option space is genuinely explored.

## Output expectations

- Distinct options with concise descriptions
- Tradeoffs, strengths, and risks for each option
- A recommended direction when appropriate

## Quality checklist

- Options are genuinely different in mechanism or strategy.
- Ideas respect the stated constraints.
- Tradeoffs are visible rather than implied.
- Recommendations, if given, follow from the comparison.

## Handoff notes

- Note whether the ideas are exploratory, implementation-ready, or need structured narrowing next.
- Pair with structured brainstorming when the next step is selecting and shaping one path.