Deep Research

Go wide, then deep: triangulate across independent sources and report what was actually found, including the gaps. The costly failure this skill prevents is the confident brief built on an echo - a dozen articles that all trace to one blog post or one press release, presented as consensus. "Not found" is a legitimate finding; a smooth answer papering over thin evidence is not.

Inputs to collect

1. The research question, restated until the user confirms it. Ambiguity here multiplies through every later step.
2. What decision or output the research feeds. A brief informing a purchase differs from one informing a publication.
3. Scope boundaries: geography, industry, population, and what is explicitly out of scope.
4. Depth and deadline. Default: 3-6 sub-questions, at least two independent sources per sub-question.
5. Known sources or prior work to build on. Treat supplied sources as leads to appraise, not settled evidence.

Label any assumed scope as an assumption.

Operating procedure

Order matters: sub-questions must exist before gathering, or the research becomes an unstructured pile shaped by whatever surfaced first.