Teams & founders
A co-founder, two teammates, one link. Async brainwriting over two days beats a video call neither of you can schedule.
Design Room
Agree. Plan. Prove. Ship.
Before Bystep writes a PRD, your team, your client or your capstone advisor agree — in a structured room, not a blank whiteboard — on the problem, the users, and which hypothesis is worth testing first.
Method
Six steps, each with a rule
Every step is scaffolded by evidence on remote collaboration and AI-assisted ideation (RISET_DESIGN_ROOM_TIM.md §2) — not a blank canvas where the loudest voice wins.
| Step | Artifact | Discipline | AI's role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Problem | Problem statement + status quo + cost of doing nothing | Owner-authored, three sentences max | Challenger: "what happens if this never gets built?" |
| 2 · Users | 1–3 personas: who, how they cope today, where it hurts | Personas are required before any idea card | Assembles personas from participants' cards — never invents one |
| 3 · Assumptions & hypotheses | Assumption cards mapped by importance × certainty → riskiest hypothesis + a cheap test | The scientist's approach: hypothesize, then test — before writing code | Drafts a firm-specific hypothesis from the cards, suggests a test doable in a day |
| 4 · Ideas (brainwriting) | Each participant writes ≥3 cards alone, hidden, then everyone reveals at once | Nominal writing beats electronic brainstorming — write first, look later | Locked until reveal; after reveal it clusters, flags duplicates, critiques from a persona |
| 5 · Choose | Dot-vote (3 dots/person) + impact × effort matrix; who voted for what is recorded | One sharp round of selection, not an endless discussion | Summarizes the reasoning, flags disagreement between voters |
| 6 · Formulate | Chosen solution + hypotheses → wizard draft, 7 answers, first acceptance criteria | Nothing is "done" until it's handed off into a plan | Drafts the wizard content; participants click "Approve the formulation" |
Who it's for
Four rooms, one method
Agencies + their clients
Invite the client as a guest, no account. Their votes and rejected ideas end up recorded in the proposal — less scope creep after kickoff.
See Bystep StudioCampuses & advisors
The capstone template starts from the problem owner, not a blank proposal. The advisor grades the process — cards and votes — not just the final report.
See Bystep CampusDesign-thinking coaches
Run every workshop for a client through the same disciplined six steps, then hand each one a branded PDF report and a certificate — without building your own tool.
Rp 299,000/month
See the Facilitator planWhy not a whiteboard
Free canvases lose at convergence
- Videoconferencing suppresses idea generation but not selection (Brucks & Levav 2022, Nature) — so generation stays async and individual; only selection happens live.
- Remote teams break through less often; collaboration online skews toward late-stage technical work, not concept work (Lin, Frey & Wu 2023, Nature) — a room has to force the conceptual step, on purpose.
- Online whiteboards stall at convergence: too much information, no facilitator role (Lim et al. 2023) — Design Room fixes this with a navigator and a hard card limit per step.
Proof-of-Why
Every feature carries its origin
The PRD's "Origin & hypotheses" section links a hypothesis to the acceptance criteria that test it, and the criteria's status is read straight from `bystep task verify` — not typed in by hand.
H-1Customers will pay a 30% deposit up front
↓ validates
AC-3validates: H-1 — deposit charged automatically via VA before the slot is held
↓ bystep task verify
Status: Supported
Evidence uploaded on the linked task flips the hypothesis from "untested" to "supported" or "refuted" automatically.
FAQ
Before you open a room
- Do participants need an account?
- No. The room owner needs one; everyone else joins with a link and a name — a signed guest token, no sign-up, no password.
- Is it really free for guests?
- Yes. Only the room owner's plan spends quota (rooms/month, AI runs); writing cards, voting and reading the summary cost guests nothing.
- Which language does it run in?
- Indonesian or English, per room — the AI facilitator, the session report and the handoff into the PRD all follow the room's chosen language.
- What happens to our data?
- Cards, votes and the AI summaries stay attached to the workspace that owns the room, the same way a plan's data does — nothing is shared across workspaces.
- Is there a live, synchronous mode?
- Not yet, by design — the evidence favors async writing before a synchronous reveal. A live mode is on the roadmap once usage shows rooms genuinely need it.
Start with agreement, not a blank page
Six steps, one link, zero accounts for guests — and a PRD that can point back to exactly why each feature exists.