Brainstorming AI Facilitation Skills

A collection of 47 focused brainstorming and ideation facilitation workflows for AI agents, plus a router skill that chooses which method to run.

The pack is written as portable SKILL.md folders for Grok, Claude, and OpenClaw. Each method skill implements one named methodology as a facilitated session, not as a solo idea generator. The agent frames the challenge, leads a human or group through the method's distinctive steps, pauses for participant input, captures what people actually said, synthesizes from that material, and ends with a concrete next move.

The collection was developed by comparing the existing game-design skill family with methodologies documented by SessionLab and Asana, then merging aliases and removing repetitive or primarily physical workshop activities. A later revision added method-specific setup, facilitation moves, watch-outs, prompts, and capture checklists so the skills do not collapse into the same generic workshop script.

Start here

Install brainstorming-session-router first. It classifies the session job, picks one method, and hands off to that method skill when the folder is available.

skills/brainstorming-session-router/
├── SKILL.md
└── references/method-selection.md

Use the router when the user says brainstorm, ideate, facilitate, pick a method, or is stuck choosing among How Might We, SCAMPER, Crazy Eights, and similar methods. Then install only the method folders you expect to need.

What the agent is for

The agent is the process owner.

Participants own:

• ideas
• observations
• sketches or frame descriptions
• scores and votes
• judgments
• commitments

The agent may offer examples, stimuli, or a labeled simulation only when asked, when the method needs a neutral prompt, or when the group is stuck. It should not invent agreement, fill silence with ideas, or declare a winner from its own taste.

How a skill is structured

Every method SKILL.md contains:

• Facilitator stance — wait, capture, do not generate by default
• Method setup — what to lock before the method starts
• Method flow — the distinctive sequence of that method
• Method-specific facilitation moves — how to keep the method from becoming generic ideation
• Watch outs — common failure modes
• Useful prompts — short spoken or chat instructions
• Capture checklist — what to record before synthesis
• Response structure — setup, current step, waiting-for, capture, synthesis, selection, next move
• Fast mode — a compact facilitated pass for short sessions

Use one method at a time. If a second method would help, finish the first and name the handoff.

Session modes

Before starting, establish:

• solo participant or group
• same room or remote chat
• time available
• how people will submit work: spoken turns, one idea per line, shared doc, or a photo of a board

Silent or parallel methods such as Crazy Eights, 6-3-5 Brainwriting, 25/10 Crowdsourcing, and Lightning Decision Jam work best when people write privately first and paste or photograph results together. Sequential methods such as Round Robin, Five Whys, and Six Thinking Hats can run turn by turn in chat.

Recommended starting points

Install the router plus a small method set. Loading all 47 methods at once makes routing harder.

• Do not know which method to use — brainstorming-session-router
• Need a sharper question — brainstorming-how-might-we or brainstorming-question-storming
• Need to mutate something that already exists — brainstorming-scamper
• Need volume and variety quickly — brainstorming-crazy-eights or brainstorming-rapid-ideation
• Need silent building without one loud voice — brainstorming-brainwriting-635
• Need ranking without debate — brainstorming-25-10-crowdsourcing
• Need a decision and an experiment — brainstorming-lightning-decision-jam
• Need separate facts, feelings, risks, and ideas — brainstorming-six-thinking-hats
• Need themes from raw notes — brainstorming-affinity-mapping
• Need inversion — brainstorming-reverse-brainstorming or brainstorming-worst-possible-idea

These skills pair well with the game-design bundle: frame or diagnose first, then use a brainstorming method, then prioritize or prototype.

Repository structure

brainstorming-ai-skills/
├── skills/       # Editable source folders, including the router
├── packages/     # Packaged .skill archives
└── README.md

Every source folder contains a SKILL.md. Each file in packages/ is a ZIP-compatible .skill archive containing the corresponding complete skill folder.

Installation

OpenClaw

Install the router first:

openclaw skills install .\skills\brainstorming-session-router

Then install individual methods as needed:

openclaw skills install .\skills\brainstorming-scamper

To install manually, copy any folder from skills/ into your OpenClaw workspace skills directory.

Grok and Claude

Copy skills/brainstorming-session-router and any chosen method folders into the agent's skills directory. The instructions are self-contained Markdown. No platform-specific scripts or dependencies are required.

On Claude, treat the router description as the trigger and load a method skill after the router names it. On Grok, install the same folders as custom skills.

Design principles

• One distinct methodology per skill.
• A router chooses the method; a method skill facilitates it.
• AI agent as facilitator, not default idea generator.
• Human participants own ideas, judgments, votes, and commitments.
• Separate divergent participant work from evaluation.
• Preserve the characteristic sequence of the named method.
• Pause for human input at method steps that need ideas, observations, scores, votes, sketches, or judgments.
• Label optional AI examples, neutral stimuli, simulations, votes, scoring, or research honestly.
• Support text sketches and frame descriptions when drawing is unavailable.
• Distinguish evidence from assumptions and generated prompts.
• End with a participant-confirmed synthesis, shortlist, and practical experiment, decision, or research task.

Skills

Router

• brainstorming-session-router — Choose the right facilitation method for the session job, group size, and medium, then hand off to that method.

Methods

• brainstorming-25-10-crowdsourcing — Lead participants to propose bold ideas and rank them through repeated blind scoring.
• brainstorming-3-12-3 — Facilitate a rapid sprint from observations to concept pitches.
• brainstorming-6-8-5 — Guide participants to create six to eight ideas in five minutes, then iterate the strongest sketches.
• brainstorming-affinity-mapping — Guide participants to cluster raw observations or ideas into emergent themes without forcing categories too early.
• brainstorming-backcasting — Guide participants backward from a desirable future to identify necessary steps and decisions.
• brainstorming-brainwriting-635 — Facilitate 6-3-5 brainwriting with traceable rounds of participant idea development.
• brainstorming-crazy-eights — Guide participants to create eight sharply different ideas quickly, then select testable directions.
• brainstorming-creativity-dice — Facilitate randomized creative lenses that help participants transform an idea.
• brainstorming-drivers-analysis — Help participants identify forces that shape a problem, then develop interventions against them.
• brainstorming-figure-storming — Facilitate ideation from the perspective of a recognizable figure or archetype.
• brainstorming-five-whys — Lead participants through repeated why questions to find actionable root causes.
• brainstorming-flip-and-rip — Guide participants to recombine fragments of existing ideas into unexpected new concepts.
• brainstorming-forced-connections — Guide participants to create novel concepts by connecting a problem to unrelated stimuli.
• brainstorming-four-step-sketch — Lead participants from evidence review to notes, rapid variants, and a detailed solution concept.
• brainstorming-future-headlines — Guide participants to imagine future headlines that clarify ambition and reveal routes to success.
• brainstorming-gap-filling — Help participants bridge the distance between current reality and a desired future state.
• brainstorming-guided-imagery — Lead participants through a structured imagined experience to surface sensory, emotional, and tacit ideas.
• brainstorming-how-might-we — Help participants reframe a problem into focused, generative How Might We prompts.
• brainstorming-how-now-wow — Facilitate participant classification of ideas by originality and feasibility.
• brainstorming-idea-napkin — Guide participants to develop a raw idea into a compact concept brief.
• brainstorming-image-association — Use images or vivid visual descriptions to help participants form fresh associations and concepts.
• brainstorming-lightning-decision-jam — Lead participants from problems to prioritized solutions and experiments without circular debate.
• brainstorming-lightning-demos — Facilitate gathering and comparison of examples from analogous problems.
• brainstorming-lotus-blossom — Guide participants to expand one central topic into eight themes and deepen each branch.
• brainstorming-making-lemonade — Help participants turn constraints, setbacks, or unwanted conditions into sources of distinctive value.
• brainstorming-mash-up-innovation — Guide participants to create concepts by combining attributes from two distinct domains or offerings.
• brainstorming-medici-effect — Facilitate innovation at intersections between disciplines, cultures, or industries.
• brainstorming-mind-mapping — Guide participants to build a hierarchical map of ideas and relationships around a central topic.
• brainstorming-morphological-matrix — Guide participants to generate concepts by recombining independent design dimensions.
• brainstorming-one-will-get-ten — Guide participants from one seed idea into ten extensions, alternatives, or consequences.
• brainstorming-question-storming — Guide participants to generate and prioritize questions before proposing solutions.
• brainstorming-rapid-ideation — Facilitate high-volume participant ideation under a short time-box before evaluation.
• brainstorming-rapid-research — Facilitate fast outside-perspective gathering before or during ideation.
• brainstorming-reverse-brainstorming — Guide participants to ask how to cause or worsen a problem, then invert answers into safeguards and solutions.
• brainstorming-reverse-thinking — Lead participants through opposing perspectives, evaluation, and comparison with the default view.
• brainstorming-role-storming — Guide participants to create and test ideas while inhabiting affected user or stakeholder roles.
• brainstorming-round-robin — Facilitate equitable sequential contribution and cumulative participant idea building.
• brainstorming-scamper — Guide participants to mutate an existing idea through seven structured transformation lenses.
• brainstorming-six-thinking-hats — Facilitate separate passes for facts, feelings, risks, benefits, creativity, and process decisions.
• brainstorming-stakeholder-round-robin — Guide participants to develop ideas sequentially from multiple stakeholder perspectives.
• brainstorming-starbursting — Guide participants to interrogate an idea through Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How questions.
• brainstorming-storyboarding — Guide participants to represent a problem and proposed solution as a sequence of moments and decisions.
• brainstorming-swot-ideation — Use strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to prompt participant strategic ideas.
• brainstorming-thing-from-future — Guide participants to invent a future artifact from randomized context, object, and emotional tone.
• brainstorming-what-if — Lead participants through counterfactual scenarios to reveal hidden possibilities and risks.
• brainstorming-wishing — Guide participants from an unconstrained wish into feasible mechanisms and staged progress.
• brainstorming-worst-possible-idea — Guide participants through deliberately terrible ideas to expose assumptions and derive useful inversions.

Method sources

The collection consolidates and adapts methodologies described in:

• SessionLab: 43 Brainstorming Techniques and Games for Creating New Ideas
• Asana: 29 Brainstorming Techniques

The resulting skill text is original procedural guidance designed for AI-facilitated use with human participants on Grok, Claude, and OpenClaw.