Use Brainstorm to explore possibilities, develop the strongest ones, and keep a record of what your team decides. The page pairs Brainstorm chat with Brainstorm cards, so useful ideas can be saved separately from the discussion.
Start with a decision you need to make: which campaign to try, what customers might search for, where to reach an audience, or which partnership to explore. A clear outcome makes the conversation more useful than a broad request for “more ideas.”
Choose a starting point
Open Brainstorm. You can describe your own request in the composer or choose one of these idea types:
- Campaign ideas — Campaign angles, offers, channels, proof points, and possible next steps.
- Search ideas — Customer search needs and possible topics to investigate.
- Short-form content ideas — Hooks, formats, and concepts for short posts or videos.
- Discovery ideas — Online places where customers spend time and useful ways to participate.
- Partnership ideas — Potential collaborations, mutual value, and an initial approach.
- Custom brainstorm — A different question, such as a referral program or a name for a new series.
The Brainstorm chat conversation is shared: the Team label means other people on your team can read and continue it. Share information appropriate for that audience and avoid including passwords or private customer details.
An unused idea type appears as a card with Start in chat. Selecting it chooses that type and adds a prepared request to the composer. It preserves existing text, so read the combined request before sending. Starter buttons in an empty conversation start the request directly; use the composer when you want to tailor the brief first.
Sending a brainstorm request uses the configured AI service. See Understanding AI usage and costs before starting repeated rounds.
Give Cedros a useful brief
Include the audience, the outcome you want, and the limits an idea must respect. Mention what you have already tried and what would make an option impractical. Ask for a small set with enough detail to compare.
For example, you could write:
“Suggest five campaign ideas for our beginner workshop. We want to reach first-time customers through our existing email list. We can prepare one email and one landing page this week, and we are not offering a discount. For each idea, give the audience need, the main message, evidence we would need, and the first step. Label assumptions and save the strongest ideas as cards.”
Adapt the example to your actual business. Details such as customer results, audience size, partner interest, and performance figures need evidence; asking for them does not make them known.
Relevant saved strategy plans can give Cedros background about your audience, positioning, brand, and channels. If that background needs work, start with Getting started with strategy or Keeping strategy plans current.
When you select an idea type, its readiness note may say Strategy grounded or Ready to brainstorm now. These cues describe available plan context. They do not certify that every plan is complete, current, or correct. Missing plans do not prevent brainstorming: supply the key facts in your brief and ask Cedros to identify assumptions.
Develop the discussion into saved ideas
Use this workflow for a focused first pass:
- Choose an idea type or enter a custom brief, then send the request when you are ready.
- Answer any essential clarification about the audience, constraints, or desired result.
- Review the proposed ideas. Point out unsupported claims, repeated suggestions, or options that do not fit.
- Ask Cedros to refine the promising options and save the ones worth keeping as cards.
- Check Brainstorm cards to confirm what was saved, including each card's title, summary, and details.
A response in the conversation is not, by itself, confirmation that a card was saved. If the discussion contains useful ideas but the panel does not show them, check the selected type and any save error before asking Cedros to save them again.
Make follow-up requests specific. For example: “Keep the workshop topic, but revise the angle for returning customers,” or “Compare the first two options on preparation time and the evidence we already have.” Ask Cedros to save a revised idea as a new card when you want to keep the changed version. Check the new card, then use the earlier card's status and notes to explain that it was superseded.
Another batch can add more cards; it does not replace the earlier collection automatically. Ask Cedros to consider existing ideas and their notes when you want a fresh angle rather than another version of an option you already rejected.
Find and review your cards
Use the dropdown above the cards to switch between All ideas and a particular type. Selecting a type narrows the cards you see; it does not delete the others or start a new conversation.
The saved count can be larger than the number currently displayed. Choose Load more when it shows remaining cards. Before concluding that an idea is missing, check the type filter and load the rest of the relevant collection.
Each saved card includes a title, a summary when one was saved, details appropriate to the idea, Status, Notes, and an updated time. Read the details before deciding what to do with it. Check that:
- The idea fits a real audience need and your current priorities.
- Claims, examples, and proposed results are supported or clearly marked for research.
- The work fits your available time, budget, and channels.
- There is a concrete next step and someone who can take responsibility for it.
Checking… means the cards or counts are still loading. Unavailable means a request failed. Neither message means the collection is empty. Some categories can load while another is still pending, so use the error message for the affected category rather than treating every card as missing.
Record your decision and next step
Use the card's Status dropdown to record the decision:
- Proposed — An idea awaiting review; the starting status for a newly saved card.
- Accepted — An idea you intend to pursue.
- Completed — An idea whose intended work you have finished.
- Ignored — An idea you have decided to pass on.
Changing status saves immediately. If saving fails, the card returns to its previous status and shows an error. Check the result instead of assuming the selection was kept.
Use Notes to explain the decision and preserve useful context. For an accepted idea, record the owner, the next step, and what must be checked. For an ignored idea, explain why it was unsuitable. For a completed idea, record what happened and any result you can support.
Notes save automatically shortly after you stop typing and when you leave the field. Wait for Saving notes… to clear and check for an error before navigating away. If a save fails, keep a copy of the text while you resolve it; leaving the field again can retry the save.
Status and notes help later discussions build on previous decisions. Accepted does not publish content, schedule a campaign, contact a partner, or assign the work. Carry out and review those steps in the appropriate workflow. Mark an idea Completed after the work is done, not simply because the discussion ended.
Resolve common problems
The composer is unavailable. Read the connection notice in Brainstorm chat and reconnect if offered. If it stays unavailable, ask your site administrator to check the assistant connection and configured AI service. See Troubleshooting the assistant.
The conversation produced ideas, but no cards appeared. Check the type filter and loading state, then ask Cedros to save the useful ideas. If saving reports an error, resolve that error before requesting another batch. Your administrator may need to check access or the available Brainstorm tools.
Cards or strategy context failed to load. Use Retry cards or Retry grounding when shown. A strategy-context problem does not mean your saved ideas were deleted. Preserve any unsaved notes before refreshing the page.
The suggestions are generic or repeat old ideas. Add a sharper audience, constraint, example, or desired outcome. Review the relevant strategy plans and ask Cedros to read existing cards and their decisions before proposing more.
Status or notes cannot be edited. Check whether the page is read-only. Ask an administrator to review your feature access. If the controls are available but saving fails, keep your notes and read the reported error before retrying.
Before leaving a session, confirm that the ideas you want to keep appear as cards, the decisions have saved, and the next action is clear. That gives the next person a useful place to continue.