Brainstorming Skill

Asked to brainstorm, a model produces ten reasonable ideas that any competent person would list — which is retrieval, not ideation. Real brainstorming has two phases with a wall between them: diverge (volume, no judgment, deliberately weird) then converge (explicit criteria, honest scoring). This skill enforces the wall.

What This Skill Produces

• A divergent set: 20-40 ideas spanning distinct strategies, not ten variants of one idea
• A convergent shortlist: 3-5 selected against criteria named before scoring
• The reject ledger: what was set aside and why — half the value, always preserved

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):

• The problem or prompt, and what an idea must accomplish to count
• Constraints that are real (budget/tech/brand) vs assumed — challenge one assumed constraint deliberately
• What's been tried or rejected already (avoids retreading; also reveals the requester's hidden criteria)

Divergent Phase (no judgment permitted)