Ideate

Ideate

Step 1: Capture the idea

If the user has already described their idea in the conversation, use that. Otherwise ask one question:

"Describe the product you want to build in one sentence — what it does and who it's for."

Step 2: Research

Search the web systematically. Read the top results in full for each search — don't skim.

Competitor discovery

• Search [keyword] app, [keyword] tool, [keyword] software
• Search [keyword] site:producthunt.com, [keyword] site:github.com
• Search best [keyword] alternative, open source [keyword]
• For each competitor found: what it does, who it targets, pricing model, main limitation, approximate user base or GitHub stars

User pain signals

• Search [keyword] reddit, [keyword] site:news.ycombinator.com
• Look for "I wish [existing tool] could...", "why is there no tool that..."
• Note the recurring complaints users have with existing solutions — these are the real gaps

Market saturation

• How many serious competitors exist? Are they well-funded, indie, or abandoned?
• Is the open-source space active (recent commits, high stars) or stale?
• Are there multiple funded startups? One dominant player? A fragmented market?

Step 3: Synthesize

Assess across four dimensions:

Saturation — how crowded is the space? Is it dominated by one player, fragmented, or wide open?

Gap — what do users consistently complain about that no existing solution addresses? Be specific.

Differentiation potential — what angle could give this product a real edge — not a marginal improvement but a meaningfully different approach?

Viability — is the problem real, frequent, and worth solving? Would people pay for it, use it daily, or recommend it?

Produce a verdict:

• go — clear gap, realistic differentiation, winnable path
• conditional go — opportunity exists but depends on specific assumptions being true; name them
• no-go — saturated, no clear gap, or problem not strong enough to build on

Step 4: Write docs

Doctier bootstrap (once per repo)

.harness/ is tracked in git as age-encrypted blobs via doctier. If .doctier.yml exists at the repo root, skip this — the repo is already set up. If .harness/ already exists but is gitignored (a pre-doctier project), follow the adoption recipe in the migrate-docs skill's REFERENCE.md instead. Otherwise, run the bootstrap in ../_shared/doctier-bootstrap.md.

Write .harness/product/idea.md

Create the directory if it doesn't exist.

# Idea: [Name]

## Concept
One sentence: what it does and who it's for.

## Problem
The specific pain being solved. Who feels it, how often, how they deal with it today.

## Market landscape

### Existing solutions
| Solution | What it does | Main weakness | Stars / traction |
|----------|-------------|---------------|------------------|
| [name]   | ...         | ...           | ...              |

### Market saturation
[low / medium / high] — one paragraph on why.

### User pain signals
The recurring complaints found in forums, communities, and discussions.

### Opportunity
The specific gap that exists and why existing solutions don't fill it.

## Viability assessment

**Verdict**: go / conditional go / no-go

**Reasons**
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

**Key assumptions to validate**
- [assumption] — how to test it cheaply

## Sources
- [URL] — what it contributed to the analysis

After writing, refresh the doc index and commit — worktrees and future sessions only see committed .harness/ content:

doctier agents --write
git add .harness AGENTS.md && git commit -m "docs: capture idea research"

Then share the verdict and key findings with the user. Recommend the next step:

• go / conditional go: "Run /product-plan to define the full product vision."
• no-go: explain what would need to change to reconsider.