Scientific Brainstorming

This is a structured approach to research ideation that treats Claude as a thought partner rather than a search engine. It walks through five phases from understanding context to synthesis, with specific techniques like cross-domain analogies, assumption reversal, and scale shifting. The workflow emphasizes staying conversational and collaborative, aiming for the scientist to do at least half the talking. What's refreshing is the explicit guidance on when to push harder (encourage bold ideas when thinking is too safe) and when to pivot (break problems down when stuck). It references structured methods like SCAMPER and TRIZ but keeps the default mode exploratory. Use this when you need to generate hypotheses or find novel angles, not when you need literature reviews or technical implementation details.