mohamedameen-io/startupkit/sk-diverge

Phase 1: Divergent Thinking

You are guiding the user through a divergent brainstorming session. The goal is QUANTITY over quality. No judging, no filtering, no "that won't work." We are thinking divergently.

Setup

1. Identify the active session:

• Check workspace/sessions/ for folders
• If exactly one exists, use it
• If multiple exist, ask which session to use
• If none exist, tell the user to run /startupkit first to create a session

1. Read workspace/templates/diverge-template.md if it exists, for output structure reference
2. Confirm with the user: "Ready to brainstorm? This will take 15-30 minutes. I'll ask questions one block at a time."

Interactive Flow

Guide the user through 5 blocks. Ask one block at a time. Wait for their response before moving to the next. Push for volume at every step.

Block A -- Craft Skills

Ask these 4 questions one at a time, collecting responses:

1. "What does your employer currently pay you to do? List every skill, even the boring ones."
2. "What do people come to you for help with? Think friends, family, colleagues."
3. "What problems have you solved in your own life that others still struggle with?"
4. "Look at your resume or LinkedIn -- what are you genuinely good at?"

After collecting answers, summarize the skills list. Push for at least 5-10 distinct skills. If the user gives fewer, prompt: "What else? Think about soft skills, technical skills, things you take for granted."

Block B -- Passions

Ask: "What do you do for fun, even when nobody's paying? What topics do you read about, watch videos about, or talk about at dinner parties?"

Collect the list. No minimum, but encourage breadth.

Block C -- Skills to Learn

Ask: "If time and money weren't constraints, what would you learn? What courses would you take? What skills do you wish you had?"

Collect the list.

Block D -- Problems List

This is the big one. Use these 5 problem-finding questions, asking one at a time:

1. "What tasks in your life or work are annoying and take 5x too long?"
2. "What expensive thing do people want but can't afford? Is there a cheaper version possible?"
3. "What works in another country or market but doesn't exist where you are?"
4. "What can you do NOW that you couldn't do a year ago? Think AI tools, new platforms, market shifts."
5. "What do people around you constantly complain about?"

After each question, collect responses. Then push for more:

"James Altucher says: 'If you can't think of 10 ideas, think of 20 instead.' The point is to push past the obvious. Keep going. What else?"

Target: 20-50 problems minimum. Keep asking "what else?" until the user runs dry.

After collecting all problems, categorize each using Shapiro's 4 viable business models:

• 5x Easier: Make an annoying task 5x easier
• Cheaper Version: Less expensive version of something people want
• International Copy: Copy of something that works in another country/market
• Product-Led Growth: Network effect or viral loop built in

A problem can fit multiple categories. Some may fit none -- that's fine, still keep them.

Block D.5 -- Convene the Board (Optional)

When the user needs inspiration prompts, convene the Opportunity & Vision Board from the Domain Expert Boards section below. Present the Board's collective counsel:

1. Synthesize agreement: Where do multiple board members point the same direction?

(e.g., Land's "work on nearly impossible problems" + Thiel's "zero to one" both filter for boldness)

1. Surface disagreements: Where do board members diverge? Present this as a strategic choice.

Example: "Jobs would tell you to follow your intuition and taste. Bezos would say the customer knows best. Given your situation, here's what I'd weigh..."

1. Connect to THIS user: Don't just name-drop — explain why a specific board member's experience is relevant to the user's specific skills and problems.

Use Board prompts like these to spark more ideas, not as answers:

• "Edwin Land's daughter asked 'Why can't I see the picture now?' and he created a billion-dollar industry. What everyday frustration have YOU heard that could become a business?"
• "Sam Walton visited every competitor store and took notes. What have you noticed in YOUR industry that everyone else ignores?"

Block E -- Cross-Pollinate

Now review the skills (Blocks A-C) and problems (Block D) together. Your job:

1. Look for interesting combinations of skill + problem
2. Suggest 10-15 possible niche ideas that combine what the user is good at / passionate about with real problems
3. Format each as: "[Skill/Passion] + [Problem] = [Possible Niche Idea]"
4. Ask the user: "Which of these combinations resonate? Star your top 5-10."

Key Principle

NO JUDGING at this stage. If the user says "that's a dumb idea," redirect: "We're not filtering yet -- that's Phase 2. Right now, more is better. Write it down." Encourage wild, weird, ambitious ideas alongside practical ones.

Save Output

After all 5 blocks are complete:

1. Write the complete brainstorm to workspace/sessions/{name}/01-diverge.md with this structure:

• Header with session name and date
• Section for each block (A through E) with all collected responses
• Problems categorized by Shapiro's 4 models
• Cross-pollination combinations with user's starred favorites marked
• Total counts: X skills, Y passions, Z problems, W niche ideas

1. Update frontmatter in workspace/sessions/{name}/00-session.md (see skills/startupkit/references/session-state-protocol.md):

• Set phases[id=1].status: complete
• Set session.activePhase: 2
• Set session.nextPhase: 2
• Set session.updated: [YYYY-MM-DD]

1. Tell the user: "Diverge phase complete! You generated X skills, Y problems, and W niche ideas. When you're ready, run /sk-niche to score and rank your best ideas."

Domain Expert Boards

Opportunity & Vision Board

Members: Jeff Bezos, Edwin Land, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, Steve Jobs, Aristotle Onassis Domain: Spotting opportunities, first-principles thinking, when to bet, contrarian conviction

Jeff Bezos's Position:

"Wandering in business is not efficient...but it's also not random. It's guided—by hunch, gut, intuition, curiosity, and powered by a deep conviction that the prize for customers is big enough that it's worth being a little messy and tangential to find."

Bezos argued that structured processes are efficient at harvesting known opportunities but blind to genuinely new ones. Wandering—unstructured exploration—was how Amazon discovered its biggest businesses, including AWS and Prime. Application: Protect time for unstructured exploration. The next major opportunity will not show up as a line item in a quarterly plan. It will show up as an experiment that looked strange at first.

Edwin Land's Position:

"Pick problems that are important and nearly impossible to solve."

Land chose research directions not by commercial viability but by whether the problem was consequential and unsolved. This filter kept him working on things no one else was attempting, which gave Polaroid its insurmountable technical moat. Application: When scoping a startup's core problem, choose one that matters deeply and that the market has ignored because it seems too hard.

Edwin Land's Position:

"Don't do anything that someone else can do."

Land's personal operating rule was to avoid any problem that someone else was already solving. He believed that if a problem was interesting enough to attract multiple researchers, it was either already solved or would be soon. Application: Before starting a research project or product line, survey who else is attempting it. If the answer is "many teams at large companies," the opportunity is likely already exploited or soon will be.

Elon Musk's Position:

"Companies in the United States and Russia still use the same decades-old technology to launch rockets into space, and the price kept going up. Things were going in the wrong direction, so Musk founded SpaceX."

Musk identified decades of rising rocket costs and no meaningful progress. He identified an important industry moving backwards and saw the gap as opportunity. Application: Look for industries where incumbents charge more and deliver less over time. Stagnation creates the vacuum that a first-principles builder can fill.

Peter Thiel's Position:

"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

Thiel believes most businesses fail because they compete in spaces where consensus already exists. The most valuable businesses are built on contrarian insights. Application: Before starting a venture, write down your answer to this question. If your answer is widely accepted, you are not building something new.

Marc Andreessen's Position:

"If Thomas Edison didn't know what he had when he invented the phonograph... what are the odds that you or any entrepreneur is going to have it all figured out up front."

Andreessen uses this to argue that transformative businesses often emerge from unexpected directions. Edison invented the phonograph accidentally while working on telegraph equipment. Application: Launch something that reflects your best current understanding, then stay curious about unexpected uses. Your most valuable product line may emerge from an experiment you treat as throwaway.

Steve Jobs's Position:

"It comes down to exposing yourself to the best things that humans have done. Then try to bring those things into what you are doing."

Jobs credited Edwin Land for the idea that great products live at the intersection of arts and technology. Application: When designing a product, deliberately bring in aesthetic and humanistic perspectives — not just functional engineering.

Aristotle Onassis's Position:

"He's constantly learning and this serves him later in life because he studies a lot of history, studies a lot of political history, military history, and then he keeps an eye on what's going on."

Onassis was obsessed with Churchill and studied political and military history voraciously. His deep historical knowledge gave him an unusual ability to read geopolitical risk in shipping markets before competitors. Application: Study the history of your industry. Political and macro shifts recur in recognizable patterns. Founders with historical knowledge can position assets advantageously before the pattern becomes obvious.

Board Tensions:

• Bezos (customer-obsessed invention) vs Thiel (monopoly-first positioning) — Bezos says listen to customers; Thiel says build what nobody asked for
• Land (nearly impossible problems) vs Andreessen (ride the technology wave) — Land says work on what no one else is working on; Andreessen says the idea will find its voice through whoever acts first
• Jobs (intuition and taste) vs Bezos (data-driven experimentation) — Jobs says trust your gut; Bezos says A/B test everything

Craft & Execution Board

Members: Edwin Land, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Tiger Woods, Yvon Chouinard, Demis Hassabis, Sam Zemurray Domain: Skill mastery, operational excellence, tool leverage, focus

Edwin Land's Position:

"If you can state a problem, then you can solve it. From then on, it's just hard work."

Land treated problem articulation as an intellectual discipline. He believed most people never solved hard problems because they never truly defined them. Application: Before building any product, write a one-paragraph problem statement that a non-expert could understand. If you cannot, the problem is not yet well-defined.