# Brainstorming Session Results **Session Date:** 2025-10-04 **Facilitator:** Mary, Business Analyst 📊 **Participant:** User --- ## Executive Summary This document summarizes the results of an interactive brainstorming session for a project tentatively named the **"Inspiration Engine."** The primary goal of the session was a broad but thorough exploration of the concept, keeping in mind the constraints of a low budget and a small development team. Using a **Progressive Flow** of brainstorming techniques, we successfully defined a clear and compelling product vision. The "Inspiration Engine" is conceived as an ultra-focused, private, and free tool for individual creatives. It will serve as a unified library for all saved creative assets (images, videos, music), leveraging powerful AI-driven search to make rediscovery intuitive and fast. Key themes that emerged were an uncompromising commitment to **user privacy and data ownership**, the importance of a **quick and simple user experience**, a powerful **AI-driven intelligence layer**, and a **freemium business model** that supports the free core service with paid plans for teams and API access. --- ## Technique Sessions Our session followed a four-phase progressive flow: ### 1. Warm-up: Question Storming We began by generating questions to explore the problem space. This phase helped establish key principles by turning initial answers into probing questions, such as: * How can the UI be designed to amplify a feeling of nostalgic rediscovery? * How do we balance a "retro" aesthetic with a fast, modern user experience? * What are the primary technical and privacy hurdles in connecting to multiple third-party APIs? ### 2. Divergent Phase: "What If" Scenarios This phase stretched the concept to define its boundaries. * **Insight 1:** Exploring a "Teams/Agency" use case solidified the strategic decision to **reject scope creep** and focus exclusively on the **individual creative** for the core product. * **Insight 2:** Exploring a "100% private, zero social features" scenario confirmed this was a **foundational pillar of the product's identity**, leading to the principle of full user control and data portability. ### 3. Convergent Phase: Mind Mapping We organized the validated ideas into a structured mind map with four key branches: * **Core Philosophy**: 100% private, full data portability, user-centric. * **Key Features**: App connectors (MCP), integrated LLM (search/generation), automatic semantic search. * **User Experience & Aesthetic**: Quick, simple, minimal, timeless/retro-class feel, max-three-clicks rule. * **Business Model**: Freemium core service, paid plans for Teams, paid API access. ### 4. Synthesis Phase: SCAMPER We used the "Substitute" prompt to innovate on the completed concept. * **Idea Generated**: Substituting a visual-first interface with a **"voice mode,"** where a user could speak an idea and have a relevant mood board instantly generated from their library. --- ## Idea Categorization ### Immediate Opportunities (MVP Focus) * **Core Feature Set**: A semantic search system for a user's private library, with initial connectors for major platforms (e.g., Instagram, TikTok). * **User Experience**: Develop the UI based on the "quick, simple, minimal" principle and the defined "retro-class" aesthetic. * **Privacy**: Implement the architecture with user-specific vector stores and a clear process for data export and account deletion. ### Future Innovations (Post-MVP) * **Monetization 1**: Develop and release the "Teams/Enterprise" plan with collaborative features and advanced connectors. * **Monetization 2**: Build and document a paid API for developers and generative models to access curated styles from user libraries (with explicit user permission). ### Moonshots (Ambitious Concepts) * **Voice-to-Moodboard**: Design and develop the voice-driven interface for generating mood boards from spoken concepts, positioning it as a key differentiator. --- ## Action Planning ### Top 3 Priority Ideas 1. **Define MVP Scope**: Solidify the minimum feature set required to deliver the core value proposition to the individual creative user. 2. **Formalize a Project Brief**: Use this document as the source of truth to create a detailed Project Brief, which will guide development. 3. **Technical Feasibility Study**: Begin research on the primary technical hurdle identified: the reliability and terms of service for connecting to the APIs of target platforms. ### Next Steps The immediate next step is to review this document and, when ready, begin the process of creating a formal **Project Brief**. --- ## Reflection & Follow-up * **What Worked Well**: The Progressive Flow was highly effective, allowing us to build from a broad concept into a focused, consistent, and well-defined product vision. * **Areas for Further Exploration**: The potential tension between a "100% private" philosophy and "effortless, account-less sharing" will need to be carefully resolved during the detailed design phase. * **Recommended Follow-up**: Proceed with the `create-project-brief` task to translate this strategic vision into an actionable development plan.