Research Interview

Structured knowledge elicitation with epistemic tracking for problem definition and requirements gathering.

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Elicit knowledge from stakeholders or domain experts
• Define a problem space systematically
• Gather requirements with confidence tracking
• Surface hidden assumptions and constraints
• Capture domain knowledge for later research

Workflow

Invoke the research-interviewer skill for: "$ARGUMENTS"

Default Parameters

| Parameter | Value | Rationale | |-----------|-------|-----------| | output_format | PROBLEM-STATEMENT | Default; produces actionable problem definition | | confidence_threshold | 0.85 | High confidence required for conclusions | | validation_mode | balanced | Mix of challenging and supportive questioning | | epistemic_tracking | enabled | Track certainty levels throughout |

Output Formats

Select based on your goal:

• PROBLEM-STATEMENT - Clear problem definition with constraints and success criteria
• REQUIREMENTS - Structured requirements with priority and confidence levels
• KNOWLEDGE-CORPUS - Domain knowledge capture for research continuation

Interview Techniques Applied

1. Open-ended exploration - Surface the problem space
2. Assumption challenging - Identify hidden constraints
3. Edge case probing - Find boundary conditions
4. Confidence calibration - Assess certainty levels
5. Gap identification - Find missing information

Epistemic Labels

All findings are tagged with confidence:

• VERIFIED - Confirmed by multiple sources or evidence
• STATED - Reported but not independently verified
• INFERRED - Derived from other information
• SPECULATIVE - Hypothesis requiring validation
• UNKNOWN - Explicit knowledge gap

Output Format

The research interview produces structured output:

<interview-output>
  <header>
    <id>[unique identifier]</id>
    <topic>$ARGUMENTS</topic>
    <format>[PROBLEM-STATEMENT|REQUIREMENTS|KNOWLEDGE-CORPUS]</format>
  </header>

  <findings>
    <finding confidence="[0.0-1.0]" epistemic="[VERIFIED|STATED|INFERRED|SPECULATIVE]">
      [Key finding or requirement]
    </finding>
    <!-- ... more findings ... -->
  </findings>

  <assumptions>
    <assumption status="[confirmed|challenged|unknown]">
      [Assumption that was surfaced]
    </assumption>
  </assumptions>

  <gaps>
    <gap priority="[high|medium|low]">
      [Information still needed]
    </gap>
  </gaps>

  <next-steps>
    1. [Recommended follow-up action]
    2. [Additional research needed]
  </next-steps>
</interview-output>

Quality Gates

• [ ] Topic is clearly defined and scoped
• [ ] Key assumptions have been surfaced and examined
• [ ] Confidence levels assigned to all findings
• [ ] Information gaps explicitly identified
• [ ] Next steps actionable and specific
• [ ] Output ready for research-brief input

Workflow Integration

This skill is the first step in the research pipeline:

/research-interview → /research-brief → /consolidate-research
     (elicit)            (design)           (synthesize)

After completing a research interview, consider:

• Run /research-brief with the problem statement to design multi-LLM research
• Run /evaluate-schema if the topic involves data modeling
• Run /compare-options if multiple solutions were identified