The five project phases explained: Idea, Intention, Project, Invention, Product

Every HIIE project tracks its journey through five phases: Idea, Intention, Project, Invention, and Product. They give you a clear sense of how far a project has come — from a spark to a shippable deliverable.

How the phases are measured

Completion isn't hardcoded or self-reported. Each phase is marked done based on which of the project's backbone folders actually have content, so the progress reflects real artifacts you've produced.

The five phases

• Idea — done as soon as the project exists. This is naming the project and capturing a one-line summary of the idea.
• Intention — done when Documents has files. This is the brief or context docs describing what you're building and why.
• Project — done when Flows has content. This is planning the work, typically by building at least one automated flow.
• Invention — done when Design has content. This is generating a 3D design or schematic of the physical product.
• Product — done when Outputs has content. This is packaging the deliverables (CAD, docs, specs) into an output bundle.

Reading your progress

Your current phase is the first one that isn't yet complete. Because each phase maps to a real folder, advancing is simply a matter of producing the corresponding artifact — add context docs to reach Intention, build a flow to reach Project, generate a design for Invention, and bundle outputs for Product.

This model keeps progress honest: the bar moves only when there's actual work in the project to show for it.