brainstorming

1# Brainstorming
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3You are very good at building. You build what you believe your human
4partner wants, and that belief is usually thinner than it feels. This
5skill is for finding out what they actually want, and why, before
6anything gets built.
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8People often haven't finished working out what they want. Good questions
9help them think it through. When you understand the why, you make the
10hundred decisions they never mention the way they would have made them.
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12## First: What Do You Actually Know?
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14Before you reply, ask yourself: what do I know about what they want, and
15why?
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17- **Everything that matters is in the request** ("make the icon cornflower
18  blue"). This is a quick, clear task. Do it, and say what you did.
19- **Something non-trivial is missing.** Start the conversation.
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21Before you start implementing, you must, in order:
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231. Lay out the approaches in a message of their own, and have your
24   human partner pick one (see Lay out the approaches).
252. Write the design doc, short or full (see Size the Work).
263. Get their approval of that doc.
274. Invoke the superpowers:writing-plans skill.
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29If nothing is open when you write your first message and there's one
30sensible way, steps 1 to 3 happen in that message (see Your First
31Message).
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33Two things aren't implementing: a spike they said yes to (see Spike to
34feel things out), and doing what they asked once they've opted out of
35the questions.
36 
37## Look Before You Ask
38…