SourceFrame
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Use caseI don’t know the options yet

Research the question before you know the answer

Keep an open problem structured while you reduce the uncertainty in rounds — instead of forcing a conclusion the evidence can’t support yet.

Free plan · No card required

The same question, one round apart

Round 1 · Variant 1

Directional findings
  • 1 Answered
  • 3 Partial
  • 1 Open
Research this

Round 2 · Variant 2

Ready to compare
  • 2 Answered
  • 2 Partial
  • 1 Open

Two setups are now established well enough to compare — and rotations below four engineers are still open.

The new round arrives as its own variant beside the first, which stays Primary until you choose. A round that finds nothing new creates no variant.

The situation

Asking for a comparison too early invents the options

  • What you have

    A question your team keeps circling — how others solve something, whether an approach is viable, what the realistic options even are. No shortlist, no agreed criteria, maybe no vocabulary for the space yet.

  • What goes wrong

    Ask for “the best option” and you often get a few plausible names and a confident answer. You can’t tell which of them was actually researched, which was filler, or what was skipped.

  • What you actually need

    A structure that survives not knowing: a position you can hold today, an explicit record of what’s still open, and a next step that closes the biggest gap instead of restarting the question.

Start here

The job runs in rounds, and you decide when to stop

  1. Stage 01 · You

    Open question

    Write the question as you actually hold it, in Auto — without naming options you aren’t sure exist. Research isn’t directly selectable; Auto routes open-ended research here.

  2. Stage 02 · SourceFrame

    Sources discovered

    SourceFrame finds and reads the sources, investigates the options it turns up, and builds a research structure rather than a one-shot answer.

  3. Stage 03 · Result

    Research Brief

    A current read, every research question marked answered, partial or open, the options investigated so far, and what is still unresolved.

    What’s inside a Research Brief

    Exit valid here

  4. Stage 04 · Loop · you

    Research thisNew variant

    Send one research move — an open question, or an option the round couldn’t establish — out for another bounded round. A new variant appears only if the round finds something new; the original stays Primary.

    Returns to stage 03 as a new variant

  5. Stage 05 · When ready · you

    Create comparisonComparison Brief

    You start it — nothing moves on by itself.

    Once the options hold still, line them up against criteria. The comparison is built from the Research Brief’s Primary variant.

The job can end at stage 03:

A Research Brief is useful on its own, open questions and all. Nothing moves the research towards a comparison, and nothing moves a comparison towards a decision.

What you get

Uncertainty you can act on

Three things a chat answer doesn’t give you, cut from the Research Brief example. What’s inside a Research Brief

  • A position that knows its limits

    Current read

    Small product teams mostly run one shared rotation, and manage how many alerts reach it rather than how fast anyone responds source 2 source 5.

    Every claim carries its sources, so the read can be re-checked rather than re-argued.

  • A record of what’s settled

    Research questions

    • Which rotation shape is most common at this size?

      Answered

    • What compensation or time off comes with a rotation?

      Partial

    • Does tooling choice affect burnout, or only reporting?

      Partial

    • How do rotations work below four engineers?

      Open

    Answered means answered by this round’s evidence — a later round’s variant states every question afresh.

  • A next step, not a restart

    RESEARCH STILL OPEN

    Establish how follow-the-sun splits are staffed

    Research this

    The move is aimed at an open question or an option the round couldn’t establish, so the next round has a purpose.

How SourceFrame handles the evidence

Thin evidence changes the brief instead of disappearing into it

The landscape is scoped

Options are split into what the round investigated and what it only surfaced, each marked by how well it was researched — not how good it is. Nothing claims to be a complete market list.

Absence is recorded

“No source describes this” is a finding here. It is the difference between an open question and one nobody thought to ask.

Maturity is stated

One line says what the research is currently good for — Directional findings, Evidence still developing, Ready to compare or Ready to decide. Each round’s variant states it afresh.

Ask stays grounded

Follow up with Sources only to stay inside the evidence, or add AI knowledge as a deliberate choice.

A worked run

One question, two rounds, then your call

  1. Round 1 · The prompt

    “What on-call setups work for a small product team without a platform team?”

    Find sources & createMode · Auto

    Six sources. A Research Brief at Directional findings: one setup well documented, one plausible but thinly evidenced, and an absence finding — nobody describes rotations below four engineers.

    Directional findings
    • 1 Answered
    • 3 Partial
    • 1 Open

  2. Round 2 · Research this

    1. Research this
    2. variant 2

    A bounded round on the option the first round couldn’t establish. Variant 2 finds how follow-the-sun splits are staffed — and rotations below four engineers are still open.

    Ready to compare
    • 2 Answered
    • 2 Partial
    • 1 Open

  3. Then · Stop, or compare

    1. Make this Primary
    2. Create comparison
    3. Comparison Brief

    Keeping the Research Brief as your answer is a complete outcome. If you want the options lined up, make variant 2 Primary and create the comparison from it.

Where you can go next

  • Primary brief type

    Research Brief

    Every section, state and continuation explained in full — the brief this job produces.

  • Can lead to

    Comparison Brief

    Once research has an option set worth comparing. Not obligatory, and never automatic.

  • Related job

    Compare tools or options

    Where this job hands off if you started without options and finished with a shortlist.

  • Different job

    Answer a question with sources

    When the question is specific enough to answer now, you don’t need the research structure.

Start with the question you can’t answer yet.

Free plan · No card required