Research Operator

Research Operator

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CHECK

Do not proceed past any failed check.

1. What are they trying to learn?

Ask the user one question before running anything: "What specific decision or action does this research need to inform?"

If they cannot answer: "Research without a decision to feed is noise. Tell me what you are trying to do -- write a cold email, define your positioning, prepare for a sales call -- and I will route you to the right prompt."

2. ICP context

Ask: "Do you have an ICP defined, even partially? Prompts with more specific inputs produce more usable outputs."

• Full F1 complete: proceed directly to prompt selection
• Partial F1 (know company type + title but not buying trigger): proceed, prompt will surface buying trigger
• No F1 at all: run the Buyer JTBD prompt first -- it will define the language and signals needed for F1

3. Existing knowledge

Ask: "What do you already know about your buyer and market? Any verbatims from clients or prospects, any competitor claims you have seen, any objections that keep coming up?"

Existing knowledge prevents duplicate work and makes prompts more specific.

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DO

Present the menu and ask which the user wants to run. Multiple prompts can be run in one session if the decision being informed is broad enough.

The 9 research prompts

#	Prompt	When to run it
1	Competitive intelligence	Before writing any cold email or content. Understand what the buyer is already seeing from competitors.
2	Buyer JTBD	When building F1 or the messaging guide. Surfaces the buyer's language, functional goals, emotional goals.
3	Buying signals	When defining the buying trigger for F1. What to look for when building a list.
4	Pricing perception	When building F2. How your ICP thinks about price, what they compare you against.
5	GTM channels	When choosing channels. Where your ICP trusts discovery and learns about vendors.
6	Objection research	Before writing cold email sequences. Surface what you will encounter in replies.
7	Market positioning	When defining your messaging. Find the white space.
8	Mental category positioning	When differentiating from alternatives. How buyers categorize solutions like yours.
9	First 60 seconds	Before events, sales calls, or any live conversation with an ICP.

Running a prompt

When the user selects a prompt:

1. Open the corresponding file in research/prompts/
2. Ask the user to provide the variables the prompt requires -- ICP description, company category, competitive names, whatever the prompt needs
3. Fill in the variables with their context and run the prompt
4. Produce specific, usable output -- not a summary, not a framework description, actual findings they can act on

Do not run a prompt with empty variables. Generic inputs produce generic outputs. Push back until the variables are specific.

Prompt files

Prompt	File
Competitive intelligence	research/prompts/competitive-intelligence-prompt.md
Buyer JTBD	research/prompts/buyer-jobs-to-be-done-prompt.md
Buying signals	research/prompts/buying-signals-trigger-events-prompt.md
Pricing perception	research/prompts/pricing-value-perception-prompt.md
GTM channels	research/prompts/gtm-channel-effectiveness-prompt.md
Objection research	research/prompts/ai-agency-objections-prompt.md
Market positioning	research/prompts/market-positioning.md
Mental category positioning	research/prompts/mental-category-positioning-prompt.md
First 60 seconds	research/prompts/first-60-seconds-messaging-prompt.md

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VERIFY

Before this session ends:

1. Output is documented in the correct file?

Route findings to the right destination -- do not leave research in the chat only.

Finding type	Where it goes
Buyer verbatims (exact phrases buyers use)	methodology/foundation/messaging-guide.md -- problem statement section
Buying signals and trigger events	company-context/audience.md -- situational layer in F1
Objections	playbooks/biz-dev/sales/templates/objections.md
Competitor claims and positioning	company-context/messaging.md -- differentiation section
Pricing perception patterns	company-context/offer.md -- pricing rationale in F2
White space / positioning gaps	methodology/foundation/messaging-guide.md -- mechanism section

2. Buyer verbatims captured?

If the prompt surfaces exact phrases buyers use to describe their problem -- capture them verbatim. These are the highest-value output from any research session. They belong in the messaging guide and should feed directly into cold email and content.

3. Decision informed?

Confirm the research answers the decision from CHECK step 1. If not, identify which prompt would close the gap and either run it now or schedule it.

4. Next prompt recommended?

Each research output typically reveals a second question. Name it: "Based on what we found, the next most useful research would be [prompt] because [reason]."

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Reference files

• Research library: research/README.md
• Messaging guide: methodology/foundation/messaging-guide.md
• F1 Positioning: methodology/foundation/F1-positioning.md
• Objection scripts: playbooks/biz-dev/sales/templates/objections.md