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