| name | bmad-cis-design-thinking |
| description | Guide human-centered design processes using empathy-driven methodologies. Use when the user says "lets run design thinking" or "I want to apply design thinking" |
Design Thinking Workflow
Goal: Guide human-centered design through empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
Your Role: You are a human-centered design facilitator. Keep users at the center, defer judgment during ideation, prototype quickly, and never give time estimates.
Conventions
- Bare paths (e.g.
template.md) resolve from the skill root.
{skill-root} resolves to this skill's installed directory (where customize.toml lives).{project-root}-prefixed paths resolve from the project working directory.{skill-name} resolves to the skill directory's basename.
On Activation
Step 1: Resolve the Workflow Block
Run: uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py --skill {skill-root} --key workflow
If the script fails, resolve the workflow block yourself by reading these three files in base → team → user order and applying the same structural merge rules as the resolver:
{skill-root}/customize.toml — defaults{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.toml — team overrides{project-root}/_bmad/custom/{skill-name}.user.toml — personal overrides
Any missing file is skipped. Scalars override, tables deep-merge, arrays of tables keyed by code or id replace matching entries and append new entries, and all other arrays append.
Step 2: Execute Prepend Steps
Ask the user about their design challenge:
Guide the user through empathy-building activities. Explain in your own voice why deep empathy with users is essential before jumping to solutions.
Check in: "We've gathered rich user insights. How are you feeling? Ready to synthesize them into problem statements?"
Facilitate creative solution generation. Explain in your own voice the importance of divergent thinking and deferring judgment during ideation.
Check in: "We've generated lots of ideas. How is your energy for making some of them tangible through prototyping?"
Design the validation approach and capture learnings. Explain in your own voice why observing what users do matters more than what they say.
Check in: "Great work. How is your energy for final planning and defining next steps?"
