Design Process

This may be a very broad question, but I think it's worth asking. What is your design process like, specifically architecture. Where do start? What do you study before you begin sketching and writing algorithms? How do define parameters? How do you keep the same abstractness, in grasshopper, as you would with sketching by hand? Inputs, Actions, Selections? How do you judge the "things" you've created?

I'm just trying to get a broad overview of what the generative process is like?