Desk Research Sprint

Desk Research Sprint Skill

Unstructured research expands to fill all available time and ends with tabs instead of answers — because "research X" was never converted into questions that can be done. The sprint fixes the shape: decompose into 3–5 answerable questions (each with what-good-enough-looks-like), plan sources by question type (market numbers, user sentiment, and technical claims live in different places), capture findings in one running doc at reading time (re-reading is the silent time-thief), and obey the stop rule — the timebox ends, the synthesis gets written from whatever's captured, gaps labeled honestly.

What This Skill Produces

• The question set — the vague topic decomposed into 3–5 answerable questions with good-enough bars
• The source plan — per question: where answers of that type actually live, and the source-triangulation depth it deserves
• The capture doc — one running format: finding → source → confidence → which question it feeds
• The synthesis — the answers at their earned confidence, the gaps named, the next-sprint questions if any

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The real question behind the topic — "research the CRM market" hides "which three CRMs should we demo?" — the decision the research feeds defines done (what-to-ask energy, applied to research)
• The timebox — two hours and two days are different sprints; the question count and depth budget follow
• What's already known — prior research, existing beliefs to test (stated as hypotheses, so confirmation bias gets a fence)
• The output's destination — a recommendation memo? A brief for the boss? The synthesis writes toward its reader from the start

Framework: The Sprint Rules

1. Decompose to answerable: each question passes two tests — could a finding settle it? and what does good-enough look like? ("rough market size ±50% is fine" vs. "need the actual pricing tiers"). Questions without a good-enough bar recruit completionism; the bar is the permission to stop.
2. Sources by question type: market numbers → industry reports, filings, the triangulation discipline · user sentiment → review sites, forums, communities (read for patterns, not anecdotes) · technical claims → docs and changelogs over marketing pages · pricing → the vendor's page plus the forum thread about what it actually costs. Typed source plans kill the generic-search spiral.
3. Capture at reading time, once: every useful finding goes into the running doc as it's read — one line: the finding, the link, the confidence flag, the question it feeds. The alternative (read now, harvest later) reads everything twice and harvests half; the capture doc is also the synthesis's raw material, pre-sorted.
4. The timebox allocates, the stop rule enforces: budget across questions up front (the decision-critical ones get double), and when a question's good-enough bar is met — stop researching it, even mid-interesting-article. At timebox end, synthesis happens with what exists; "one more source" is the lie completionism tells.
5. Synthesize with confidence labels: each question answered at its earned level ("Q2: roughly $4–6B, single-sourced, fine for our purpose · Q4: couldn't verify — flagging as the open risk") — the labeled gap is a finding, and pretending coverage is the sprint's cardinal sin. The last section: what a second sprint would chase, if the decision warrants one.

Output Format

Research Sprint: [topic] → [the decision it feeds] · timebox: [T]

The Questions

Source Plan

[Per question: the typed sources + triangulation depth]

The Capture Doc (running)

[Finding · source · confidence · feeds-Q# — one line each, written at read-time]

Synthesis

[Per question: the answer at earned confidence · the labeled gaps · the recommendation if the destination wants one · next-sprint questions]

Quality Checks

• Every question has a good-enough bar set before searching
• Sources were planned by question type, not generic-searched
• Findings were captured at read-time into the one doc
• Questions stopped at their bars; the timebox ended the sprint
• Gaps are labeled as findings, never papered over

Anti-Patterns

• Do not research a topic — decompose to questions or inherit forty tabs
• Do not read without capturing — the second read is the sprint's biggest hidden cost
• Do not keep researching past the bar — good-enough was defined for exactly this moment
• Do not present echoed sources as confirmation — the triangulation rules ride along
• Do not end without the synthesis — captured-but-unsynthesized research is tabs with better formatting