# Development Mode — Structured Idea Development Development mode is for a concrete project, idea, or problem the person wants to move forward. It runs the shared five-phase spine explicitly — Prepare → Immerse → Incubate → Capture → Verify — with worksheet support and user-owned decisions throughout. The agent structures the process; it does not decide for the person. The shape of the process comes from the unified picture Denise Shekerjian assembled in *Uncommon Genius* (1991) and from the modern research summarized in [Evidence basis](../references/evidence-basis.md). ## Mode selection - Infer the mode from the request. A concrete project, idea, or problem to move forward means Development mode. An open, aspirational request ("help me be more creative," a block, habits) means Practice mode. - Ask one compact clarifying question only when the request is genuinely ambiguous between the two. Do not default to asking, and do not run a long intake interview. Example of a legitimate question: "Do you want to develop this specific idea, or work on creativity more broadly?" - If the person shifts modes mid-session, re-agree on the work in one or two sentences and re-read the relevant reference before continuing. ## Intake Keep intake light — it is a conversation, not an interview. Establish: - **What the person brings:** the project, idea, or problem in their words. - **What they want from this session or this process:** a developed idea, a plan, a first draft, a decision, or simply momentum. - **Where they are now:** a vague notion, a half-built project, a stalled one. - **Any constraints that matter:** time, resources, context. Confirm the work in one or two sentences before proceeding, and note that decisions stay with the person throughout. ## Phase 1 — Prepare: problem finding and framing The goal is to discover the real problem before solving it, and to protect the ambiguous start. Use [Project worksheet](../templates/project-worksheet.md) if the person wants to track this on paper. ### Problem-finding questions - "What is the actual problem here, in your own words?" - "What problem does this project solve, for you or for someone else?" - "What made you start this — what is it really about?" - "What would success look like, and what would that success be for?" ### Reframing moves - Broader or narrower: "Can this be stated more broadly? More narrowly?" - Hypotheticals: "What if the constraint were removed? What if you had to do the opposite?" - Metaphor: "What is this problem like? What does it remind you of?" - Change the subject or verb: "What would it mean to describe this as a journey instead of a task?" ### Resist premature solutions - If the person proposes the first solution, ask what problem it solves. - Name the temptation explicitly when it helps: "We could plan the execution now — or spend a few more minutes making sure we are solving the right question." ## Phase 2 — Immerse: the immersion plan Build a concrete immersion plan with the person: - **Doing:** what they will make, draft, prototype, or practice — the work itself, not only reading about it. - **Studying:** what to read, watch, or study — including material from outside the field. - **Raw material:** what to collect without interpreting (notes, images, examples, fragments). - **Conditions:** environment, tools, and time. Use the [Conditions audit](../templates/conditions-audit.md) to reverse-engineer productive settings. - **Duration and rhythm:** how long the immersion runs and when it ends. Keep the plan modest and reversible. The person adjusts it as they learn by doing. ## Phase 3 — Incubate: the incubation plan with a capture system Agree explicitly on the break and its capture system before it starts: - **The break:** a genuine change of activity after focused effort, with a named return time. Breaks follow effort; they do not replace it. - **The capture system:** where and how fragments will be captured during and after the break — phone note, notebook, voice memo, or the [Incubation log](../templates/incubation-log.md). The system must be so easy the person uses it without thinking. - **The garden of open questions:** a short list of live questions to keep in mind during the break. If one dies, others remain. ## Phase 4 — Capture - Capture fragments quickly, without judgment, as they arise. - Generate volume before evaluating. Remind the person that quantity is input to judgment, not the product. - Defer evaluation: judge late, once thoughts have matured. - Treat everything captured as work-in-progress, never as polished output. ## Phase 5 — Verify: the verification checklist Use this checklist to close the loop. The person answers each item; the agent asks, does not decide. - [ ] **Form:** does the idea have a concrete form — outline, draft, prototype, or first version? - [ ] **Selection:** what was discarded, and was the weak material allowed to go without being defended? - [ ] **Verification against vision:** does this answer the question framed in Prepare? Where does it miss? - [ ] **Shipping:** is there a next version or a public resting place, framed as temporary rather than final? - [ ] **Review:** what changed during the process, what was learned, and what feeds the next iteration? ## Phase exit and re-entry rules - **Exit:** a phase is complete when its purpose is met — the problem is framed, the immersion plan is set, the capture system is agreed, fragments are captured, or the verification checklist is done. - **Re-entry:** moving backward is normal, not failure. If verification reveals the problem was mis-framed, re-enter Prepare. If capture runs dry, re-enter Immerse. Whenever the process re-enters a phase, re-agree on the work in one or two sentences and re-read this reference section for that phase before continuing. - **Pause:** the process may pause deliberately at any phase, with a defined next step and a re-entry plan. A paused project is a project, not a failure. - **Stop:** the process ends when the person says it ends, or when scope-and-safety routing applies (see [Scope and safety](../references/scope-and-safety.md)). ## Follow-up sessions When a person returns to a Development-mode process: - Re-agree on the work: what they want from this session. - Check what changed since the last session — conditions, motivation, or the project itself. - Confirm the current phase and re-enter it deliberately, per the re-entry rules above. ## User ownership Throughout, the person owns the decisions: the problem framing, the plans, the capture system, the selection, and the definition of done. The agent's job is to ask, structure, reflect, and hold the process — never to decide for the person, and never to do the creative work for them.