| name | product-manager-brainstorm-phase |
| description | BrainstormPhase for ProductManager feature candidate discovery. Use to turn ResearchPhase evidence into possible feature candidates, opportunity clusters, candidate matrices, RICE-style scoring, user-value scoring, effort/risk estimates, prioritization, and top recommendations. Triggers on BrainstormPhase, candidate generation, feature ideas from research, opportunity matrix, rank feature candidates, prioritize product ideas, and synthesize opportunities. Do NOT use before a research artifact or evidence base exists. |
ProductManager BrainstormPhase
BrainstormPhase converts evidence into ranked feature candidates. It should feel imaginative, but never detached from the research base.
Inputs
Read these if present:
research.mdevidence-log.md- Existing roadmap, issues, docs, or user notes
- Product constraints from
AGENTS.md, architecture docs, or runtime evidence
If the evidence base is thin, list gaps and run a small ResearchPhase top-up before scoring.
Candidate Generation
Generate candidates through four lenses:
- Friction removal: what repeated pain did mock use reveal?
- Visibility: what valuable state already exists but is hard to see, compare, or trust?
- Control: where does the user need a safer, faster, or more reversible action?
- Category expectation: what do adjacent products make users expect?
For each candidate, write the smallest useful version first. Add larger variants only after the small version is clear.
Scoring
Use a 1-5 scale unless the user gives a different rubric:
| Score | Meaning |
|---|
| User value | How much pain or desire this addresses |
| Evidence strength | How directly the research supports it |
| Differentiation | How much it improves the product's position |
| Effort | Implementation and design complexity, reversed in final ranking |
| Risk | Data, UX, operational, or trust risk, reversed in final ranking |
Recommended score:
(user_value * 2) + evidence_strength + differentiation - effort - risk
Candidate Matrix
Write candidate-matrix.md:
# BrainstormPhase Candidate Matrix
| Rank | Candidate | User Problem | Evidence | Value | Evidence | Diff | Effort | Risk | Score | Call |
|---|---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
## Top Recommendation
## Parked Ideas
## Rejected Ideas
## Assumptions to Validate
Quality Gate
Before moving to FeatureDocPhase:
- Rank at least five candidates unless the product surface is tiny.
- Include at least one "do not build" call.
- Name the top candidate and why it wins.
- Identify the riskiest assumption for the top candidate.
Out of Scope
- Gathering initial evidence: use
product-manager-research-phase.
- Writing detailed feature docs: use
product-manager-feature-doc-phase.
- Sending or summarizing the run: use
product-manager-report-phase.
