Session types

Different conversations want different structure. AlienMonster supports four session types.

Strategy Interview

The deep-dive session. Runs a structured interview against a framework (Product Vision Board, Osterwalder Business Model Canvas, or similar). Each section of the framework is covered in turn; the Facilitator asks rubric-driven questions and pushes back on vague answers.

Typical output: 20–40 primitives across most dimensions.

Start by asking the Facilitator:

Run a strategy interview for my project.

Brainstorm

The divergent session. Used when you want to explore ideas without committing yet. Captures ideas, directions, open questions, and connections between them. At the end, the Facilitator scores how far you've converged — whether you've narrowed down enough to pick a direction.

Typical output: 10–25 brainstorm primitives, some of which get promoted to canonical strategy primitives.

Start by asking:

Help me brainstorm ideas for our onboarding flow.

Quick Update

The short session. Used when you already decided something and just want to record it. Captures a single decision, a piece of feedback, or a piece of market intel. Finishes in about two minutes.

Typical output: 1–3 primitives.

Start by saying:

I just decided to use Postgres over MongoDB. Record that.

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

Being rebuilt. A chat-based session format shipped in v1; the expanded version is coming in 2026. See Capturing strategy with BYOK.

Choosing a session type

• If you're thinking out loud and don't know the answer yet — Brainstorm.
• If you have a decision already — Quick Update.
• If you want to cover your whole strategy systematically — Strategy Interview.
• If you want to drive the model yourself with your own keys — BYOK (when the rebuild ships).

You can run multiple sessions per project. Primitives from different sessions live in the same strategy repo but are tagged with their source.