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

•Open-ended exploration - Surface the problem space
•Assumption challenging - Identify hidden constraints
•Edge case probing - Find boundary conditions
•Confidence calibration - Assess certainty levels
•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:

xml

<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:

code

/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