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Week / Day 1 · Wed Aug 5 / Brainstorming problems
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Brainstorming problems

Leave with ONE one-sentence problem thesis that survives a public gallery walk.

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10:45
start
90m
duration
5
exercises
3
things you leave with
Welcome

The most important session of your week, and it runs on paper and sticky notes before software. You will probably arrive with a vague ambition, something like an app for studying. You will leave with a sharp sentence about a real person and their real problem. Everything you build this week inherits its quality from that sentence.

You walk out with
✓One problem thesis in the format
✓A market scan with real competitor names
✓A wall of problems the whole cohort can see
Why this session exists

Bad code can be fixed in an afternoon. Building something nobody wants costs you the whole week. Offline exercises make the whole room's problems visible before anyone falls in love with an idea.

The arc, minute by minute
10:45
Problems, not ideas + the thesis format
10:55
Ex 1 · Annoyance inventory: 10 annoyances, paper, solo
11:05
Ex 2 · Day replay: map yesterday hour by hour, circle friction
11:15
Ex 3 · Sticky-note storm: everything to the wall
11:25
Cluster and dot-vote as a room
11:40
The ten-yuan filter, then AI market scan in two models
11:55
Write the thesis, gallery walk aloud
Exercises
01
Annoyance inventory
10 things that annoyed you in the last 7 days. Small counts. Screens closed.
02
Day replay
Map yesterday hour by hour on paper. Circle every moment of friction. Problems hide in routines.
03
Sticky-note storm
Every annoyance to the wall, one per note. Cluster together, dot-vote the hottest territories.
04
Brainstorm WITH Claude
Feed Claude your 3 circled problems. Have it attack each one, suggest adjacent problems you missed, and role-play the person who has it. In the Claude app, no setup.
05
AI market scan
Run the scan prompt in Claude AND one other model. Note two agreements and one disagreement.
prompt · give this to the room verbatim
I am a student. My problem candidate: [X]. Who already solves this? List existing products, what they charge, and what users complain about in reviews. Then tell me what is still unsolved.
Tools in play
Paper firstClaudeA second model
Materials to prep
Sticky notes, hundredsSharpiesDot stickersWall space + tape
The checkpoint · nothing counts unless it is live
Gallery walk: you read your thesis aloud. Vague ones die here, kindly. Make yours sharp enough to survive.
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