Crazy Eights

Session Setup

Before starting:

Context check: Look for a context/ folder in the working directory. If it exists, read all files inside (docs, screenshots, prior exercise outputs) to build background understanding. If it doesn't exist, ask if the user has reference materials. If yes, create the context/ folder and tell them to drop files in. If no, create an empty context/ folder and proceed.
Resume check: Check if crazy-eights.md already exists in the working directory. If it does, ask: "I found existing concepts. Would you like to resume and refine them, or start fresh?" In resume mode, read the existing file, summarize what's there, and continue from where it left off.
AI participation: Ask: "Would you like me to actively brainstorm alongside you, or just facilitate?"
- Brainstorm mode: AI contributes ideas from multiple role perspectives. AI ideas are clearly labeled by role.
- Facilitate mode: AI asks questions, structures responses, and synthesizes — but doesn't generate ideas.
AI roles (Brainstorm mode only): Check for context/sprint-roles.md. If found, use the roles defined there. If not, use the defaults (PM, Design, Engineering, Business). Ask: "The current roles are [list]. Would you like to customize them, or use these?" If the user customizes, offer to save as context/sprint-roles.md for future exercises. Maximum 6 roles.
Output: When the exercise is complete, save the output as crazy-eights.md in the working directory. If the file already exists, ask before overwriting. Add  at the top of the file when finished. If saving a partial result mid-exercise, use  instead.

Facilitation Quality Bar

Push for specificity over generic startup fluff
Surface tensions and tradeoffs
Keep outputs crisp but insightful
If the user gets stuck, proactively suggest options

Exercise

Goal

Rapid concept divergence — generate 8 meaningfully different solution concepts.

Input

Check the working directory and context/ folder for prior exercise outputs (especially hmw-opportunities.md, dot-vote-*.md). If found, use the top-voted opportunity or HMW question as the design challenge.

If no prior outputs exist, ask the user to describe the design challenge or opportunity they want to ideate on.

Rules

Each concept must be meaningfully different from the others
Mix safe and bold ideas
Avoid minor variations of the same concept
Each concept should use a different product shape or mechanism — don't repeat the same underlying approach with surface-level changes

Diversity prompts

Push concepts across these different shapes:

Automation (do it for the user)
Marketplace (connect supply and demand)
Community (leverage collective behavior)
Tool (give the user power to do it themselves)
Content (educate or inform)
Gamification (motivate through progress and rewards)
Integration (plug into existing workflows)
Platform (enable others to build on top)

Process

In Brainstorm mode, AI generates all 8 concepts for the user to react to, refine, and swap.

In Facilitate mode, AI prompts the user for each concept with provocative questions like:

"What's the boldest version of this?"
"What if you removed the main constraint?"
"What would a competitor never try?"

Output

Crazy 8 Concepts

For each concept:

Concept name
One-line idea
Key differentiator
Risk level (Low / Medium / High)

Clearly label AI contributions.

What's Next

Suggest these follow-up exercises:

/design-sprinter:dot-vote — pick your top concepts
/design-sprinter:storyboarder — bring the winning concept to life as a user journey

crazy-eights