01
Spark
The original half-baked idea.
A Spark does not need to be complete. It only needs enough pulse for someone else to understand what might want to grow.
Product Mechanism
The first Crooked Stack mechanism
Crooked Stack is simple on purpose: a rough idea can be shared, helped, forked, tested, and eventually become something visible.
A Spark in the wild
I want to make a Chinese reading club for lonely young people in the city, but not the pretentious kind. More like a spring picnic: everyone brings one book and trades a small piece of their life.
02
Brick
A small contribution from someone else.
A Brick can be a name, line of copy, suggestion, objection, resource, case study, design note, action step, or commercialization angle.
03
Stack
The evolving main version.
When several Bricks help the idea become clearer, they gather into the main line: the current Stack.
04
Fork
A new direction based on the original idea.
A reading-club Spark might Fork into a New York version, online version, breakup-themed version, flower-arranging reading club, podcast, or social account.
05
Build
Someone starts doing the thing for real.
A Build begins when people create the group chat, launch a signup form, design the poster, host the first event, or make an MVP page.
06
House
A visible outcome exists.
A House appears when the event happens, the website ships, the first podcast episode is published, or a small product has a demo.