Introducing Cutline Exploration Mode
Cutline now helps you before you have an idea to stress-test. Exploration Mode is a free, AI-guided ideation flow that takes you from vague domain curiosity to concrete, value-ranked product ideas—then seamlessly graduates your best idea into a full pre-mortem analysis.
**From "I Have a Hunch" to "Here's What to Build": Introducing Exploration Mode. **
The Gap in Product Discovery Cutline's pre-mortem has always been our flagship: give us a product thesis, and we'll stress-test it ruthlessly. We'll find the holes, challenge your assumptions, and tell you whether to proceed, pivot, or kill. But we kept hearing the same question: "What if I don't have a formed idea yet?" Most product folks don't wake up with a fully-formed thesis. They have hunches. Observations. "I wonder if..." moments. They see a domain that feels ripe for disruption but aren't sure where to start digging. Traditional brainstorming tools don't help—they generate endless ideas without evaluating them. AI chatbots will happily riff with you forever without converging on anything concrete. Exploration Mode fills this gap. It's a structured, AI-guided process that transforms your vague interest into ranked, buildable product ideas.
How It Works: The 6-Act Framework Exploration Mode guides you through six distinct phases, each with a clear purpose:
Act 1: Domain Framing We start by establishing shared context. What's your connection to this space? What do you already know? What's fuzzy? Even domain experts benefit from surfacing implicit assumptions that might otherwise go unexamined.
Act 2: Pain Discovery Now we systematically inventory pain points across the value chain. Where do people get frustrated? What takes too long? What workarounds do people use? We're building a comprehensive map of problems worth solving.
Act 3: AI Fit Analysis Not every problem should be solved with AI. We score each pain point against key criteria: Pattern recognition at scale? "Good enough" judgment repeated 1000x? Data exists but is underutilized? Bottleneck is human attention on repetitive cognitive work? Low-leverage branches get pruned. High-leverage opportunities get highlighted.
Act 4: Idea Crystallization From the best pain × leverage intersections, we generate 3-5 concrete product directions. Each idea is framed as: Problem: What's broken Solution: What to build Why AI: Why this is AI-tractable Who Pays: Revenue model and buyer
Act 5: Value Ranking Ideas get scored using our value formula: Value Score = Pain Intensity × AI Leverage × Market Accessibility You get a ranked list with clear reasoning: "Idea 1 scores highest because the pain is acute (lawyers are expensive), AI leverage is strong (NLP is mature), and buyers have budget (legal spend is a line item)."
Act 6: Graduation Your top idea graduates directly into Cutline's pre-mortem for stress-testing. All the context—domain knowledge, pain points, AI fit analysis—flows through seamlessly. Not Your Average Brainstorm Exploration Mode has teeth. This isn't "yes and" improv brainstorming. We actively prune low-value branches. If a pain point doesn't score well for AI leverage, we deprioritize it. If a market is crowded with well-funded competitors, that affects the ranking. We challenge your assumptions. Just because you feel a pain point is intense doesn't mean the market will pay to solve it. We push back. We rank ruthlessly. The output isn't "here are 10 ideas for you to think about." It's "here are 3 ideas, ranked, with reasoning for why #1 beats #2 and #3."
When you're ready to graduate your top idea to a full Deep Dive analysis, that's where Cutline Premium unlocks the next level. With Premium, You'll get:
- Full risk analysis with mitigations
- Assumption prioritization and test plans
- Competitive landscape deep dive
- Clear verdict with reasoning
- What to validate first We show you a teaser of what the Deep Dive found—enough to prove value, gated behind premium to run the full analysis.
Available Everywhere: MCP Integration Exploration Mode is fully integrated with our MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. That means you can run exploration sessions from: Cursor, Claude Code ... - Explore product ideas while you code Any MCP-enabled assistant - Your workflow, your choice Start with exploration_start, continue with exploration_chat, check progress with exploration_status, and graduate with exploration_graduate.
Try It Now Got a domain you're curious about? A problem you've noticed? A vague hunch that "there's got to be a better way to..."? Start an exploration session. It's free, it's structured, and it might just crystallize your next product.
Your best idea is waiting to be discovered. Let's find it together. Cutline: The Candid PM that helps you build the right thing—now starting even earlier in your journey.