| name | brainstorm-pivots |
| description | Brainstorm tweaks, additions, or pivots that could improve an idea's feasibility, market readiness, capital efficiency, defensibility, or speed-to-revenue. Produces a ranked list of variants with the trade-off each one buys. Use when an idea has been analysed and the user wants suggestions for how to make it stronger. |
Brainstorm Pivots & Tweaks
Generate a slate of variations on the captured idea — small tweaks, feature additions, scope reductions, and full pivots — each scored on what it improves and what it costs.
Steps
- Read the idea + all available lens outputs (vc-lens, tam-analysis, b2b-b2c-fit, assumptions, hardware-feasibility, dev-spec, social-impact). The richer the prior analysis, the better the brainstorm.
- Generate at least 10 variations, mixed across categories:
- Scope cuts — what gets removed to ship faster / cheaper
- Feature additions — non-obvious adjacent features that strengthen the wedge
- Customer pivots — same solution, different segment (e.g. B2C → B2B prosumer)
- Business-model pivots — same product, different monetisation (subscription → marketplace fee → licensing)
- Geographic pivots — start narrow (local market) vs. start global
- Wedge swaps — what if the lead use case were different
- Partnership / channel plays — what if it were sold through an existing distributor
- For each variation, score:
- What it improves (feasibility, TAM, defensibility, capital efficiency, time-to-revenue, fit-to-user)
- What it costs (complexity, diluted vision, harder GTM, etc.)
- Difficulty to evaluate further (one experiment vs. months of work)
- Group the slate into:
- Top 3 to seriously consider — biggest improvement, lowest cost
- Worth a follow-up conversation — interesting but unclear
- Discarded — captured for completeness, with one-line rationale
Output
<workspace_path>/ideas/<slug>/analysis/brainstorm-pivots.md with frontmatter:
---
lens: brainstorm-pivots
generated: YYYY-MM-DD
top_pick: <one-line>
---
Notes
- Bias the brainstorm toward variations the user could actually execute given their context. A "raise $20M" pivot for a bootstrapper is wasted ink.
- A pivot that improves five dimensions but the user hates is still a bad pivot. Note when a variation conflicts with stated user values.
