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name: desk-research-sprint description: "Run a timeboxed desk-research sprint that ends with an answer instead of forty tabs — the question decomposition, the source plan by question type, the capture discipline that prevents re-reading, and the stop rule that beats completionism. Use when asked research this market/tool/topic by Friday, I have two hours to get smart on X, structure my desk research, or I keep researching and never concluding. Produces the decomposed questions, the source plan, the capture format, and the timeboxed synthesis with confidence labels."

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

#	Question	Good-enough bar	Time budget

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

Example Trigger Phrases

• "Research this market/tool/topic by Friday."
• "I have two hours to get smart on X."
• "Structure my desk research."
• "I keep researching and never concluding."