# Brainstorming Session Results

**Session Date:** 2025-10-10
**Facilitator:** Business Analyst Mary
**Participant:** BMaD-Man

## Executive Summary

**Topic:** VisaAI PRD & BMAD Documentation Alignment

**Session Goals:** Surface requirement gaps, ideation opportunities, and risks across the VisaAI PRD and BMAD workflows.

**Techniques Used:** Six Thinking Hats (structured analysis)

**Total Ideas Generated:** 10

### Key Themes Identified:

- Scope Framing & Prioritisation: MVP/Stretch/Post-MVP tagging is essential to tame scope bloat and stage delivery.
- Governance Alignment: BMAD validation gates and CLAUDE autonomy directives need an explicit reconciliation playbook.
- Operational Safeguards: Brownfield rollout demands documented rollback, monitoring, and dependency sequencing.
- Documentation Coherence: Sharded PRD assets require synthesis artifacts (heatmaps, runbooks, swim-lanes) to stay actionable.
- Compliance & Support Readiness: Stories need embedded compliance acceptance criteria and operations handoffs.

## Technique Sessions

### Six Thinking Hats (Structured)

- White Hat captured objective facts from PRD shards, checklist, and CLAUDE directives.
- Red Hat surfaced intuitive unease about missing rollback coverage and conflicting guidance.
- Yellow Hat highlighted strengths in requirements clarity and governance tooling.
- Black Hat mapped brownfield risks, scope creep, and governance conflicts.
- Green Hat generated the ten actionable ideas categorised later.
- Blue Hat synthesised process learnings and guided the convergent/action phases.

## Idea Categorization

### Immediate Opportunities

_Ideas ready to implement now_

• MVP vs Stretch vs Post-MVP matrix per epic/story
• Integrate brainstorming outputs into docs/prd/07-next-steps action items
• Readiness Heatmap visual in docs/prd/06

### Future Innovations

_Ideas requiring development/research_

• Brownfield Launch Runbook with rollout/rollback/monitoring plan
• Dependency swim-lanes mapping
• Compliance acceptance criteria appendices per story
• Phased backlog translation of CLAUDE.md directives aligned with BMAD gating

### Moonshots

_Ambitious, transformative concepts_

• SCAMPER-driven advanced enhancements tying AI alerts to automation across modules
• Governance reconciliation playbook harmonising autonomous directives and BMAD validation gates
• Documentation synthesis playbook to prevent overwhelm at scale

### Insights and Learnings

_Key realizations from the session_

1. Without an MVP matrix, downstream teams will treat every story as critical path, prolonging brownfield risk exposure.
2. A launch runbook is the missing bridge between strategic vision and safe deployment; its absence blocks stakeholder confidence.
3. Aligning CLAUDE directives with BMAD governance converts conflicting instructions into a phased backlog that teams can trust.
4. Visual readiness cues (heatmap, dependency swim-lanes) accelerate comprehension of complex documentation.
5. Embedding compliance criteria at story level ensures regulatory obligations are designed in, not bolted on later.

## Action Planning

### Top 3 Priority Ideas

#### #1 Priority: MVP vs Stretch vs Post-MVP matrix per epic/story

- Rationale: Clarifies delivery scope, reduces brownfield risk, and supplies downstream teams with staged targets aligned to readiness gaps.
- Next steps: Inventory all epics/stories → classify into MVP/Stretch/Post-MVP → review with PO/architect → publish matrix in docs/prd/05 and shard story files.
- Resources needed: Product owner, architect, tech leads, docs/prd shards, BMAD story templates.
- Timeline: 5 working days.

#### #2 Priority: Brownfield Launch Runbook (rollout, rollback, monitoring)

- Rationale: Provides the operational safety net missing from the PRD checklist, enabling confident portal deployment.
- Next steps: Gather environment details and integration points → define rollout stages & feature flags → document rollback triggers and communication paths → embed monitoring dashboards and incident response.
- Resources needed: Architect, DevOps/infra lead, QA, security/compliance stakeholders, docs/prd & docs/architecture sources.
- Timeline: 10 working days.

#### #3 Priority: Phased backlog translating CLAUDE directives into BMAD-aligned stages

- Rationale: Resolves conflicting guidance between autonomous execution and governance gates, giving teams a trusted roadmap.
- Next steps: Deconstruct CLAUDE.md directives → map items to BMAD workflow stages (plan/validate/build) → create phased backlog with entry/exit criteria → socialize with delivery leads.
- Resources needed: Product owner, programme lead, engineering leads, CLAUDE.md, BMAD workflow docs.
- Timeline: 7 working days.

## Reflection and Follow-up

### What Worked Well

- Six Thinking Hats delivered balanced coverage of facts, risks, and creative avenues.
- Immediate/Future/Moonshot categorisation crystallised the backlog into actionable horizons.
- Lessons Learned elicitation surfaced coherent themes for scope, governance, and operations.

### Areas for Further Exploration

- Detail the technical and operational steps inside the Brownfield Launch Runbook.
- Validate resource capacity to execute the phased backlog and MVP matrix simultaneously.
- Expand compliance acceptance criteria into reusable story templates.

### Recommended Follow-up Techniques

- SCAMPER workshop on portal collaboration features.
- Dependency Mapping session with architecture and engineering leads.
- Pre-mortem analysis ahead of portal rollout to stress-test the runbook.

### Questions That Emerged

- How will rollout sequencing coordinate between SwiftUI app, Phoenix backend, and automation services?
- What monitoring metrics will signal rollback triggers versus incident escalation?
- Who owns maintaining the CLAUDE-to-BMAD phased backlog once initial alignment is done?

### Next Session Planning

- **Suggested topics:**
  - Detailed Brownfield Launch Runbook drafting
  - Compliance acceptance criteria template design
  - Dependency swim-lane visualisation workshop
- **Recommended timeframe:** Schedule follow-up workshops within the next 3 weeks, sequenced after MVP matrix delivery.
- **Preparation needed:** Compile environment diagrams, integration inventories, and existing operational playbooks before sessions.

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_Session facilitated using the BMAD CIS brainstorming framework_