Imported from kopfwelt/skills (skills/facilitation/design-thinking-methods/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add kopfwelt/skills --skill design-thinking-methods. Copyright stays with the author.

Design Thinking Methods

Three phases. Skip none, but keep phase 1 short.

Language

Method files and this skill are written in English. Everything the user sees is produced in the conversation language: your responses, and every user-facing string in the canvas config (title, instructions, steps, tips, zone title/hint/info, and the ui block). Translate from the method file on the fly. Zone ids, context keys, and export fields always stay in English — they are contract, not copy.

Phase 1 — Diagnosis

No method selection without diagnosis. Clarify exactly these four things, via AskUserQuestion if available, otherwise as one compact question:

1. Where are you? (problem unclear / solutions missing / decision due / testing)
2. How many people?
3. How much time?
4. What exists already? (interviews, personas, idea list, nothing)

If the prompt already answers all four, don't ask again. If something is missing, ask only for what's missing — and wait for the answer instead of packing question and recommendation into the same message. Name what you assume rather than know (e.g. "presumably no interviews yet") as an assumption.

Then read references/selection-matrix.md and propose one method, with a one-sentence justification and one alternative. Don't offer three equal options — selection is this skill's job.

Phase 2 — Render the canvas

Render exactly one canvas — the chosen method's. The follow-up method (next_methods) is rendered only after the analysis in phase 3, never in advance: its context consists of the current method's results, which don't exist yet. An HMW canvas without insights is an empty form, not a tool.

Read the method file at references/<phase>/<id>.md. Take assets/canvas-base.html as the base and replace the /*__METHOD_CONFIG__*/ block with the JSON object you derive from the frontmatter's canvas block (schema: see the comment at the top of canvas-base.html). Change nothing else in the renderer — if a method can't be rendered without touching the renderer, that's a schema problem to report, not a reason for one-offs.

Special case zones_source in the canvas block: the zones are then not in the frontmatter; you generate them at render time from the named input (e.g. one zone per idea in the idea_list) — details are in the method file. The renderer always receives a finished zones array.

The artifact strictly needs:

• steps and tips in the config, filled from the method file's "Steps" and "Facilitation notes" sections — carry them over fully, don't compress to one sentence; the canvas must be facilitatable without the chat next to it. For zones that need explanation, add info on the zone object (expandable behind ⓘ).
• a ui block with all UI strings in the conversation language (see renderer comment for keys; defaults are English)
• a timer per zone when time_per_zone is set
• persistence via window.storage (fallback localStorage) under dt:<session_id>
• an "Export result" button that places exactly the schema from references/export-contract.md on the clipboard
• a visible line: "Done? Click export and paste it here."

You generate the session_id yourself: dt-<date>-<shortid>, e.g. dt-2026-08-03-a1.

Phase 3 — Analysis

When users paste an export JSON: parse it against references/export-contract.md, then

• cluster (thematically, not alphabetically — with >20 entries use scripts/synthesize.py)
• name patterns and outliers; don't trim outliers away
• check the method file's next_methods and mirror them against the current diagnosis
• propose exactly one next step

If a collection of ideas is substantively thin, say so. A skill that reframes twelve mediocre sticky notes as "strong impulses" is worthless.

Process chain

One method's provides_output is the next method's requires_input. When rendering the follow-up method, carry the relevant results of the previous one into the canvas config's context block so they are visible in the artifact.