Product Brainstorming With Team

Step 1: Exhaustive Clarification (CRITICAL)

DO NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. Ask until you're 100% clear.

Before dispatching ANY agents, you MUST gather complete context from the human. Incomplete understanding leads to wasted agent cycles and wrong recommendations.

Required Context Categories

Clarification Rules

1. Ask in rounds - Don't ask 20 questions at once. Ask 3-5, get answers, ask follow-ups.
2. Confirm understanding - Summarize what you heard. "So to confirm: [X, Y, Z]. Correct?"
3. Probe vague answers - "Use existing backend" → Which services? What database? What auth exists today?
4. No implicit assumptions - If you're assuming something, ASK instead.

Red Flags - You're Making Assumptions If:

• You're guessing which technologies/providers to consider
• You're imagining what the current system looks like
• You're assuming users have/don't have certain capabilities
• You're filling in blanks the human didn't specify
• You think "they probably mean X" without confirming

STOP. Ask the human. Then proceed.

When to Move to Step 2

Only proceed to classify complexity when you can answer ALL of these:

• I know exactly what problem we're solving
• I know what exists today (not assumed)
• I know what's been tried/rejected before
• I know the explicit scope boundaries
• I have confirmed my understanding with the human

Step 2: Classify Complexity (DETERMINES LOOP COUNT)

After clarification, classify the feature's complexity. This determines how many discussion loops you MUST run.

Complexity Levels

Classification Checklist

Mark as HIGH if ANY of these apply:

• Involves regulatory/compliance requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2, etc.)
• Requires significant architecture changes
• Touches 3+ existing systems
• Involves AI/ML with novel use cases
• Has security-critical components (auth, payments, PII)
• Unclear competitive landscape requiring deep research

Mark as MEDIUM if ANY of these apply (and not HIGH):

• Crosses 2+ team boundaries
• Requires evaluating new technologies
• Has dependencies on external systems/APIs
• Involves user-facing changes affecting >10% of users
• Needs market research for positioning

Mark as LOW only if:

• Single domain, single team
• Well-understood requirements
• Standard tech stack
• Internal tooling or low-risk features

When in doubt, classify UP. Better to have more discussion than miss critical issues.

Document Classification

In meeting notes, record:

## Complexity Classification: [HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW]

**Reason:** [1-2 sentence justification]
**Required Loops:** [3/5/7]

Expert Agents (MUST Dispatch All)

Web Research Requirements (CRITICAL)

Product Marketer and Researcher MUST use WebSearch and WebFetch tools. Markets change daily. Static knowledge is insufficient.

Product Marketer must research:

• Current competitor offerings and pricing
• Recent market trends and shifts
• Customer sentiment and reviews of competing products
• Industry analyst reports and forecasts

Researcher must research:

• Latest technology developments in the domain
• Recent case studies and implementations
• Current best practices and standards
• Emerging solutions and startups in the space

In agent prompts, EXPLICITLY instruct:

You MUST use WebSearch to research current market conditions.
Do NOT rely solely on training data - the landscape changes daily.
Include URLs and dates for all market claims.

Red Flag: If Product Marketer or Researcher output contains NO web citations, their analysis is stale. Redispatch with explicit web research instructions.

IRON Rules

You MUST follow these rules. No exceptions.

1. EXHAUST clarification BEFORE dispatch - No assumptions. Ask until 100% clear.
2. CLASSIFY complexity and commit to loop count - LOW=3, MEDIUM=5, HIGH=7. No shortcuts.
3. ACTUALLY dispatch subagents - Use Task tool with parallel calls in ONE message
4. Create shared meeting notes file FIRST - Agents read this for context
5. Run the FULL loop count for complexity - Not 1-2 fewer "because we covered it."
6. Ask human on ALL decision points - Not just tensions (MUST use AskUserQuestion tool)
7. Product Marketer & Researcher MUST use WebSearch/WebFetch - No stale market data.
8. Update meeting notes after each round - Shared memory must stay current

Human Decision Points (CRITICAL - Not Just Tensions)

Ask the human about ALL of these, not just tensions:

Decision Point Collection Process

After each round, categorize ALL open questions:

## Round N Decision Points

### Tensions (Expert Disagreements)

- [List conflicts between expert perspectives]

### Architecture Decisions Needed

- [List technical choices requiring human input]

### Scope/Priority Tradeoffs

- [List feature vs timeline/resource conflicts]

### Risk Decisions

- [List uncertain approaches needing risk tolerance input]

Use AskUserQuestion for EACH category with options. Don't batch all decisions into one question - group by type for clarity.

Red Flags - STOP and Fix

• Making assumptions about what exists, what's been tried, or what's in scope
• Planning to "simulate" or "represent" perspectives yourself
• Skipping subagent dispatch because "it's more efficient"
• Resolving tensions without asking the human
• Only asking about tensions - architecture choices, scope tradeoffs, etc. also need human input
• Stopping before reaching the loop count for your complexity level
• Product Marketer or Researcher output has no web citations - redispatch with explicit web instructions
• Forgetting to create/update meeting notes file
• Proceeding with vague answers like "use existing backend" without probing
• Classifying as LOW to reduce loops - when in doubt, classify UP

All of these mean: You're violating the workflow. Fix it.

Parallel Dispatch Template

In a SINGLE message, dispatch ALL agents:

[Task tool: Product Manager agent]
[Task tool: Product Marketer agent]
[Task tool: Principal Engineer agent]
[Task tool: Security Specialist agent]
[Task tool: UI/UX Specialist agent]
[Task tool: Platform Engineer agent]
[Task tool: Researcher agent]

Each agent prompt MUST include:

1. The feature being explored
2. Path to meeting notes file to read
3. Their specific focus area
4. Request for 3-5 bullet points of concerns/ideas

Meeting Notes Template

Create at docs/epics/<feature>/meeting-notes.md:

# <Feature> - Meeting Notes

## Goal

[From clarification step]

## Audience

[From clarification step]

## Constraints

[From clarification step]

## Complexity Classification: [HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW]

**Reason:** [1-2 sentence justification]
**Required Loops:** [3/5/7]

---

## Round 1: Initial Perspectives

### Product Manager

[Agent output]

### Product Marketer

[Agent output]

### Principal Engineer

[Agent output]

### Security Specialist

[Agent output]

### UI/UX Specialist

[Agent output]

### Platform Engineer

[Agent output]

### Researcher

[Agent output]

## Round 1 Decision Points

### Tensions (Expert Disagreements)

- [Tension 1]
- [Tension 2]

### Architecture Decisions Needed

- [Decision 1]

### Scope/Priority Tradeoffs

- [Tradeoff 1]

### Risk Decisions

- [Risk 1]

## Human Input (Round 1)

[Record human's decisions for EACH category above]

---

## Round 2: Refined Perspectives

[Continue pattern for each round...]

Output

After completing all loops for your complexity level, write PRD to docs/epics/<feature>/prd.md:

# <Feature> - Product Requirements Document

## Executive Summary

[1-2 paragraphs]

## Goals & Success Metrics

[From discussion]

## User Stories

### Story 1: [Short Title]

**As a** [user type/persona],
**I want** [capability/feature],
**So that** [benefit/value].

**Acceptance Criteria:**

- [ ] Given [precondition], when [action], then [expected result]
- [ ] Given [precondition], when [action], then [expected result]
- [ ] [Edge case handling]
- [ ] [Error state handling]

**Priority:** [P0/P1/P2]
**Complexity:** [S/M/L/XL]

---

### Story 2: [Short Title]

**As a** [user type/persona],
**I want** [capability/feature],
**So that** [benefit/value].

**Acceptance Criteria:**

- [ ] Given [precondition], when [action], then [expected result]
- [ ] ...

**Priority:** [P0/P1/P2]
**Complexity:** [S/M/L/XL]

---

[Continue for all stories...]

## Technical Approach

[From Principal Engineer + Platform Engineer]

## Security & Compliance

[From Security Specialist]

## UX Requirements

[From UI/UX Specialist]

## Go-to-Market Considerations

[From Product Marketer - MUST include web research citations]

## Market Research Summary

[From Researcher - MUST include web research citations with URLs and dates]

## Phases

[From Product Manager]

## Open Questions

[Unresolved from discussion]

## Appendix: Meeting Notes

See meeting-notes.md for full discussion history.

User Story Requirements (CRITICAL)

Every user story MUST have:

1. User persona - Who benefits? (admin, end user, developer, etc.)
2. Capability - What can they do?
3. Value - Why does it matter?
4. Acceptance Criteria - How do we know it's done?

• Use Given/When/Then format
• Include happy path AND edge cases
• Include error states

5. Priority - P0 (must have), P1 (should have), P2 (nice to have)
6. Complexity - S (hours), M (days), L (week), XL (weeks)

Red Flag: If a PRD has vague user stories like "Users can login" without acceptance criteria, it's incomplete. Add specific criteria before finalizing.

Common Rationalizations (Don't Fall For These)