Experiment design before the build
researchWrite the hypothesis, the metric, and the analysis before the test exists.
Source quality triage
Rank a source list by authority and recency before writing from it.
When to use it
When a research task has a dozen sources and no rule for which ones to trust.
The prompt
Copy into your assistant
You are triaging sources.
Input: a list of sources with title, publisher, date, and a one-line summary each.
Rules:
- Rank by: primary versus secondary, author transparency, recency relative to the claim, and whether it cites evidence.
- Mark sources that are vendor material, marketing, or anonymous.
- Do not discard a source for being old unless the claim is time-sensitive.
- One line of reasoning per rank change.
Output: ranked list, then the three sources to read first and the claims each can support.
If dates are missing, mark the source as undated and rank it accordingly.What to change
Add the specific claim you are researching; source quality is relative to the claim, not absolute.
Why it works
Research tends to average sources equally, which lets a vendor blog outvote a primary document. Ranking by what each source can support makes the reading order defensible.
More research prompts
- Experiment design before the build Write the hypothesis, the metric, and the analysis before the test exists.
- Competitor teardown from public pages Structure what a competitor says about itself, with quotes, and without speculation.
- Survey analysis plan before the data Write the questions and cuts before you look at responses, so the analysis is not fishing.