Research / playbook

Build a research brief you can check.

Move from a broad question to a sourced report with competing explanations and visible uncertainty.

KKeith Rumjahn·4 min read·Free

EXAMPLE RESEARCH NOTE · ILLUSTRATIVE

Know what is checked—and what is still a guess.

Sample question: should a small team change its project-management tool?

Check in official docs: Can the team export its work in a usable format?
Test directly: Import one representative project and inspect the result.
Still uncertain: How much retraining and cleanup will the move require?
Decision condition: Proceed only if the trial preserves the information the team needs.

An example evidence structure, not a completed product comparison. Actual research should include dated sources and test results.

A detailed report can look authoritative even when the evidence underneath it is weak. This workflow puts the research question, source quality, and unresolved issues ahead of the presentation. Use it when you need to understand a topic well enough to make the next decision.

YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH

A structured research brief with a claim-to-source table and clear limits.

An AI assistant · your source material · web access for current research

01 / Decide what the research needs to help you do

Define a question, audience, geography, and time period. Add the decision the report should inform and anything outside its scope. “Remote work” is broad; “What evidence should a small agency consider before changing its remote-work policy?” is easier to investigate.

Choose a research cutoff rather than using an old year embedded in a template. The updated prompt asks for that date explicitly.

02 / Agree on a research plan

Before producing a report, ask the assistant which subquestions it will investigate and which source types would answer them. If it lacks web access, provide sources and ask for a review of that material only.

Match the source to the claim. A product feature can be checked in official documentation; a claimed effect needs evidence suitable for that question. A source can be authoritative about its own offering without being an independent evaluation of it.

03 / Make an evidence trail

For the remote-work example, separate employee preferences, recruitment effects, coordination costs, and business outcomes. Those are different questions and may require different evidence.

Ask for a table containing each important claim, its source, the source date, the relevant passage or finding, and any limitation. A link that exists but does not support the claim is not a useful citation.

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Read the uncertainty before the recommendation

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