---
name: alternatives-explore
description: Generate and evaluate genuinely different approaches to a product, workflow, or system problem. Use when the user asks for a bold, contrarian, experimental, or non-incremental alternative and wants a testable recommendation rather than ordinary optimization.
---

# Alternative Ideation

Find a useful abstraction shift without confusing novelty with value.

## Workflow

1. State the core problem, current assumptions, constraints, and outcome that must remain valuable.
2. Generate several materially different bets by changing ownership, workflow, abstraction, distribution, architecture, or a supposedly necessary component. Do not produce cosmetic variants.
3. Evaluate each bet for user value, distinctness, feasibility, reversibility, and testability.
4. Select the strongest bet and explain which default assumption it rejects, why that matters, and where it could fail.
5. Define the smallest prototype or experiment with a falsifiable success signal and a bounded cost.

Prefer a sharp, testable idea over fashionable terminology or speculative infrastructure. Present the alternatives briefly, then develop only the selected bet.