brainstorming
brainstorming
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, modifying behavior, or planning anything new, in software or out of it (a talk, a business, a renovation).
suede-marketing-ideasSuede-affiliated marketing ideation using a structured tactic library scored for stage, audience fit, evidence, capacity, cost, and risk. Use when the user is stuck, wants options, or needs a shortlist of growth tactics before committing to a plan. NOT FOR: a comprehensive roadmap (use suede-marketing-plan), channel execution (use the relevant public Suede …
Independent GitHub snapshot · Automated classification · Original documentation governs
Suede turns a broad tactic library into a bounded shortlist scored against the user's audience, stage, evidence, capacity, cost, and risk. The goal is not to label the library's tactics "proven"; it is to identify which few deserve validation in this specific situation and which should be deferred or rejected.
Read .agents/product-marketing.md first if it exists and ask only for what it does not cover; see suede-product-marketing for path fallbacks.
When asked for marketing ideas:
references/ideas-by-category.md). Score no more than 8 candidates.| Category | Ideas | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Content & SEO | 1-10 | Programmatic SEO, Glossary marketing, Content repurposing |
| Competitor | 11-13 | Comparison pages, Marketing jiu-jitsu |
| Free Tools | 14-22 | Calculators, Generators, Chrome extensions |
| Paid Ads | 23-34 | LinkedIn, Google, Retargeting, Podcast ads |
| Social & Community | 35-44 | LinkedIn audience, Reddit marketing, Short-form video |
| 45-53 | Founder emails, Onboarding sequences, Win-back | |
| Partnerships | 54-64 | Affiliate programs, Integration marketing, Newsletter swaps |
| Events | 65-72 | Webinars, Conference speaking, Virtual summits |
| PR & Media | 73-76 | Press coverage, Documentaries |
| Launches | 77-86 | Product Hunt, Lifetime deals, Giveaways |
| Product-Led | 87-96 | Viral loops, Powered-by marketing, Free migrations |
| Content Formats | 97-109 | Podcasts, Courses, Annual reports, Year wraps |
| Unconventional | 110-122 | Awards, Challenges, Guerrilla marketing |
| Platforms | 123-130 | App marketplaces, Review sites, YouTube |
| International | 131-132 | Expansion, Price localization |
| Developer | 133-136 | DevRel, Certifications |
| Audience-Specific | 137-139 | Referrals, Podcast tours, Customer language |
For the complete list with descriptions: See references/ideas-by-category.md
Score every candidate 0–3 on all six dimensions. 0 means "no evidence either way," not "probably fine."
| Dimension | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audience | No evidence the ICP is reachable here | Plausible by category, unverified | ICP observed on this surface | Named communities/queries/accounts the user can point at |
| Stage | Preconditions absent | One precondition missing | Preconditions met, untested | Preconditions met and a comparable move already worked |
| Evidence | Support is "it's popular" | Third-party case studies only | Dated first-party signal from an adjacent channel | Dated first-party result for this audience |
| Capacity | No owner | Owner named, no hours | Owner + hours, displaces something | Owner + hours with no displaced commitment |
| Cost | Unknown total cost | Over the approved bounded amount | Within it, but consumes most of it | Within it with headroom |
| Risk | No stop condition definable | Reversible only at cost, gates unchecked | Reversible, gates identified | Reversible, cheap to stop, no legal/platform/brand exposure |
Decision rule, apply in order, first match wins:
A tactic the user is already running is Current, score it, but do not present it as a new idea. These five statuses are the same set suede-marketing-plan Section 12 uses, so a shortlist drops into a plan without relabeling.
Caps. Score at most 8 candidates; surface at most 5; at most 3 carry Approved test at once. If more than 3 clear rule 2, rank by Capacity then Cost and move the rest to Deferred: capacity, not enthusiasm, is the binding constraint.
Required rejection. Every shortlist must name at least one tactic that is not recommended, drawn from the record rather than invented: something the user named under Task-Specific Questions 3 or 4 (already tried, or a competitor tactic they admire), or the highest-scoring candidate that still fails a dimension. Do not construct a strawman the user never raised. If the user named nothing and every scored candidate clears, say that explicitly instead of manufacturing a rejection.
When recommending ideas, provide for each:
Close every shortlist with the required rejection, in this form:
Not recommended: [tactic], fails [dimension] because [current evidence, or the absence of it].
suede-marketing-plan to turn selected ideas into a sequenced roadmap.suede-marketing-loops for approved recurring workflows.suede-programmatic-seo, suede-competitors, or suede-emails for channel execution.suede-free-tools for engineering-as-marketing and suede-referrals for referral mechanics.suede-marketing-council when the shortlist is a coin-flip between two defensible directions and scoring does not separate them.suede-marketing-psychology for the behavioral mechanism behind a conversion tactic, stated as a testable hypothesis.