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Knowledge-Work Workflow

1. Frame the task

Record:

  • the exact question or decision;
  • audience and intended use;
  • scope, jurisdictions, industries, entities, and time period;
  • cutoff date for current information;
  • required deliverables and level of detail;
  • material assumptions and exclusions.

2. Build the source hierarchy

Default priority:

  1. primary documents, official data, statutes, regulations, judgments, filings, contracts, and original research;
  2. high-quality institutional or peer-reviewed analysis;
  3. reputable secondary reporting;
  4. commentary and discovery sources.

Use lower-tier material to locate or contextualize higher-tier evidence. Do not use it to overrule primary evidence without explanation.

3. Retrieve and verify

For each material source:

  • verify title, author or institution, date, version, and relevant scope;
  • inspect the underlying text, table, appendix, or data—not only a snippet or abstract;
  • capture the smallest locator that supports the proposition;
  • note limitations, conflicts, and whether the source is current enough.

4. Maintain a claim-evidence matrix

Material claim Evidence Source quality Counterevidence Status
... ... Primary/Secondary ... Verified/Qualified/Unverified

Do not draft a confident synthesis while decisive claims remain unmapped.

5. Analyze

Separate:

  • descriptive facts;
  • causal claims and identification assumptions;
  • legal or institutional interpretation;
  • the source author's conclusion;
  • the agent's critique;
  • the agent's proposal.

For quantitative claims, check definitions, units, denominators, sample construction, timing, missingness, and comparability.

6. Adversarial review

Before finalizing:

  • search for disconfirming evidence;
  • identify alternative explanations;
  • check whether sources are independent or merely repeat one another;
  • test whether the conclusion depends on a single fragile assumption;
  • identify what evidence would reverse the conclusion.

7. Deliver

Lead with the conclusion and decision relevance. Then provide:

  • scope and method;
  • evidence-backed findings;
  • disagreements and counterevidence;
  • assumptions and limitations;
  • implications or recommendations;
  • a clear separation between verified findings and original inference.