| name | brainstorming-mind-mapping |
| description | Facilitate a Mind Mapping session to visually organize ideas radiating from a central concept, revealing connections and expanding the team's understanding of a topic or problem. Invoke when the user needs to structure an open-ended topic, generate hierarchically organized ideas, or capture a brainstorm before narrowing to solutions. |
Adapted from bmad-method:bmad-brainstorming (MIT, © 2025 BMad Code, LLC). See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.
When to use
Use this skill when a project topic, problem, or domain needs to be explored broadly before any filtering or prioritization begins. Typical triggers include:
- Scoping a new project phase and needing a comprehensive picture of all relevant concerns before writing the charter or WBS
- A retrospective or lessons-learned session where the team must surface all categories of feedback before grouping and voting
- A stakeholder identification exercise where the team must enumerate all affected parties across multiple organizational layers
- A communication plan kick-off where all message types, channels, and audiences need to be visible at once before the matrix is drafted
Do not invoke when the problem already has discrete parameters requiring systematic combination; prefer Morphological Analysis. Do not invoke when a specific impediment needs root-cause tracing; prefer Five Whys.
Summon the SME
Before facilitating, load the canonical Mind Mapping reference to ground the session in established practice.
Reading the config. Check .pm-kit.config.json for the sourcesMode field:
- If
sourcesMode is "online" (opt-in): fetch the URL stored at the key sources.mindMapping in vendor/pm-kit/sources-index.json using your available web-fetch capability. Do not name a specific tool — use whatever your runtime provides. Ground the facilitation in what you read. Do not fabricate quotations or page numbers from any version of that page.
- If
sourcesMode is "offline" or the field is absent (the default): rely on your general knowledge of Mind Mapping as developed by Tony Buzan. Cite the canonical URL from vendor/pm-kit/sources-index.json at key sources.mindMapping in the output. Do not fabricate quotations or page numbers.
In both cases, the URL to cite is https://tonybuzan.com/.
Facilitation script
Walk the user through these steps in sequence. Do not skip steps or combine them.
Step 1 — Central concept. Ask the user to name the central topic, problem, or decision to be explored. Confirm the term is specific enough to anchor the map without pre-restricting the branches. Write it at the center of the map.
Step 2 — First-level branches. Ask: "What are the major categories or dimensions of this topic?" Aim for 4–8 branches. Each branch is a single noun or short noun phrase. Record them as first-level nodes radiating from the center.
Step 3 — Second-level sub-branches. For each first-level branch, ask: "What are the key ideas, concerns, or elements within this category?" Record them as second-level nodes connected to their branch. Aim for 2–5 sub-items per branch.
Step 4 — Third-level detail (if warranted). For any sub-branch where the team has additional granularity or where gaps remain, prompt one more level of expansion. Do not force this level if the second level is already sufficient.
Step 5 — Cross-links. Ask the user to review the full map and identify any connections between nodes on different branches. Mark each cross-link explicitly (e.g., "Budgeting <-> Resource Plan"). Cross-links often reveal the most actionable insights.
Step 6 — Prioritization pass. Ask the user to mark 3–5 nodes across any branch level as high-priority — the items most critical to address in the next planning cycle. Use a simple marker (e.g., [HIGH]).
Step 7 — Output. Produce the completed mind map using the structure in TEMPLATE.md (sibling file). Fill every section. Leave no placeholder unfilled.
Step 8 — Save the artifact. Save the filled artifact to docs/pm-kit/outputs/brainstorming-mind-mapping/<short-slug>.md. <short-slug> is a kebab-case ASCII slug (max 40 characters) derived from the central concept (e.g., project-risks-overview). Confirm the final path with the user before writing. If the target file already exists, ask the user whether to overwrite, append a date suffix (e.g., -2026-04-20), or choose a different slug. The artifact must begin with the three-line provenance header below (preserved as HTML comments so they do not render):
<!-- Generated by agentic-pm-kit:brainstorming-mind-mapping on YYYY-MM-DD -->
<!-- Languages: communication=<value>, output=<value> -->
<!-- Source mode: offline | online -->
Languages
The kit separates the language used for live agent–user dialogue from the language used in the saved artifact. Both values live in .pm-kit.config.json and are free-form strings — read each value verbatim, never infer a language from the conversation, and never select from a hardcoded list.
Facilitation dialogue. Speak to the user during facilitation in the language at language.communication. Use the string verbatim.
Filled artifact (saved TEMPLATE.md output). Produce the written artifact in the language at language.output. If language.output is absent or empty, fall back to language.communication.
Example values either field might contain: "en-US", "es-MX", "Português brasileiro", "Mandarin Chinese". Accept any string as given. This bifurcation is the normative pattern for every skill in the kit.
Acceptance gate
When the session is complete, point the user to CHECKLIST.md (sibling file) and ask them to verify each item. Remind them that the output must be marked PASS or FAIL. On FAIL, invite the user to return with specific notes so the facilitation can be resumed or corrected.
