bmad-brainstorm

Business

Facilitates structured ideation sessions using proven brainstorming techniques (SCAMPER, SWOT, 5 Whys, Mind Mapping, Six Thinking Hats, Reverse Brainstorming, Starbursting, Brainwriting). Produces a brainstorming-report.md of organized ideas and actionable insights. Operates in three intents: Create (new session), Update (add techniques or deepen coverage), Validate (confirm insights align with project goals). Use when the user says: "brainstorm", "ideate", "generate ideas", "explore options", "SCAMPER", "SWOT analysis", "mind map", "Six Thinking Hats", "5 Whys", "creative session", "what if we", "let's explore", "think through possibilities", "find alternatives", or "problem-solve". This skill PLANS only — it never writes application code or runs tests.

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BMAD Brainstorm

Structured ideation harness for the BMAD planning lifecycle. Produces a brainstorming-report.md of organized ideas and insights ready to feed downstream planning skills (product-brief, PRD, architecture).

Three Intents

Ask the user which intent applies — or infer from context:

Intent	When to use
Create	New brainstorming session on a topic or problem
Update	Add techniques, deepen coverage, or incorporate new constraints
Validate	Confirm generated insights align with project goals or decision-log

Technique Menu

Technique	Best For	Approx Time
5 Whys	Root cause analysis	10-15 min
SCAMPER	Feature ideation & creative variations	20-30 min
Mind Mapping	Idea organization & hierarchy	15-20 min
Reverse Brainstorming	Risk and failure-mode identification	15-20 min
Six Thinking Hats	Multi-perspective evaluation	30-45 min
Starbursting	Question exploration (Who/What/When/Where/Why/How)	20-30 min
SWOT Analysis	Strategic positioning	30-45 min
Brainwriting	Silent parallel idea generation	15-20 min

Technique Selection Guide

Exploring a problem? → 5 Whys, then Starbursting
Generating features or solutions? → SCAMPER, Mind Mapping
Assessing risk or failure modes? → Reverse Brainstorming, Six Thinking Hats (Black Hat)
Strategic planning or positioning? → SWOT, Six Thinking Hats (full cycle)
Need parallel idea volume? → Brainwriting

Session Workflow

Use TodoWrite to track each step.

Gather context — Ask: topic/problem, relevant constraints, which BMAD track is active
Read project context — Load bmad-output/project-context.md and bmad-output/decision-log.md if present
Select techniques — Choose 2-4 complementary techniques; confirm with user
Execute sessions — Apply each technique systematically (diverge first, do not filter)
Organize ideas — Categorize all generated ideas; label Impact (H/M/L) and Feasibility (H/M/L)
Extract insights — Identify top 3-5 actionable insights across all techniques
Identify risks — Capture risks surfaced during ideation
Produce report — Fill templates/brainstorm-session.template.md; save to output folder
Update decision-log — Record key decisions or directions confirmed during the session
Recommend next steps — Which BMAD skill to engage next

Script Utilities

Generate SCAMPER prompts for a specific topic:

bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-brainstorm/scripts/scamper-prompts.sh" "your topic"

Generate a SWOT analysis scaffold:

bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-brainstorm/scripts/swot-template.sh" "your subject" > bmad-output/swot-draft.md

Output Artifacts

All artifacts go under the user-configured output folder (default bmad-output/).

File	Description
`bmad-output/brainstorming-report.md`	Primary output — organized ideas + insights
`bmad-output/decision-log.md`	Append key decisions made during session
`bmad-output/swot-draft.md`	Optional SWOT scaffold (from script)

Use templates/brainstorm-session.template.md for the report structure.

Subagent Strategy

For sessions covering multiple techniques in parallel, fan out one agent per technique.

Pattern: Fan-Out Ideation
Agents: 2-6 parallel (one per selected technique)

Agent	Task	Output
Agent 1	Apply SCAMPER to generate feature variations	`bmad-output/brainstorm-scamper.md`
Agent 2	Build Mind Map to organize ideas hierarchically	`bmad-output/brainstorm-mindmap.md`
Agent 3	Reverse Brainstorming — identify failure modes	`bmad-output/brainstorm-risks.md`
Agent 4	Six Thinking Hats — multi-perspective analysis	`bmad-output/brainstorm-hats.md`
Agent 5	Starbursting — Who/What/When/Where/Why/How	`bmad-output/brainstorm-questions.md`
Agent 6	SWOT Analysis — strategic positioning	`bmad-output/brainstorm-swot.md`

Coordination:

Write brainstorming objective to bmad-output/brainstorm-objective.md
Select 2-6 techniques; launch one agent per technique with context path
Each agent generates 10-20 ideas/insights using its assigned technique
Main context synthesizes all outputs into bmad-output/brainstorming-report.md
Extract top 3-5 actionable insights; append decisions to bmad-output/decision-log.md

Example subagent prompt:

Task: Apply SCAMPER technique
Context: Read bmad-output/brainstorm-objective.md for topic and constraints
Output: Write 15-20 creative variations to bmad-output/brainstorm-scamper.md

Apply each SCAMPER letter systematically. Generate 2-4 ideas per letter.
For each idea: one-sentence description, potential value, innovation level
(incremental / breakthrough). Conclude with your top 3 most promising ideas.
Do not implement anything — ideation output only.

BMAD Fidelity Notes

This skill feeds Phase 1 (Analysis) and Phase 2 (Planning). Insights flow into the product-brief and PRD skills.
Insights that become commitments must be logged in bmad-output/decision-log.md.
This skill does not produce stories. It produces raw insight material that upstream skills (product-manager, system-architect) refine into epics and stories.
Scale-adaptive tracks apply: Quick Flow sessions may use 1-2 techniques; Enterprise sessions should apply 4-6 for comprehensive coverage.

Guiding Principles

Diverge before converging — generate volume first; filter later
Structured over freeform — every technique has a defined process; follow it
Document everything — capture all ideas; even "bad" ones can spark breakthroughs
Quantify insights — numbers make insights actionable (market size, feature counts)
Cross-pollinate — consider how other industries or domains solve the same problem
No implementation — this skill plans; it never writes code or runs tests

Part of the BMAD Planning & Orchestrator plugin — a Claude Code harness for the BMAD Method by the BMAD Code Organization (https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD). Implements the spirit of bmad-brainstorming. All methodology credit belongs to the BMAD Code Organization.