Define the lane
Confirm the purpose, source, required context, and decisions that remain with your team before work enters the evidence brief.
Documented assistant role
Research Assistance
Build source-led research packets that separate evidence, uncertainty, and owner judgment.
Best suited to: Teams that need repeatable market, vendor, topic, or operational research with reviewable sources.
Discuss this role
The operating problem
Capacity only helps when the work is reviewable.
Research support fails when the question is vague, sources are weak, quotations lose context, or summaries present inference as fact.
Scope
Work the assistant can own
- Define the decision question and evidence limits
- Search approved source types and record retrieval details
- Extract claims with links and context
- Flag conflicts, gaps, and items needing owner judgment
Workflow
Move each item from release to accepted output.
Work from evidence
Process each item using the current instructions, record its source, and avoid filling gaps by assumption.
Close the handoff
Return source-led findings with exceptions, next owners, and due times visible in the agreed source of truth.
Deliverables
Outputs an owner can inspect
- Source-led findings
- Exception and question register
- Handoff record with owner and due time
- Quality sample and correction log
Boundaries
Decisions that remain with your team
- Consequential approvals remain with an authorized client owner
- The assistant does not invent missing facts, policy, or commitments
- Sensitive or conflicting research questions follow the documented escalation path
Quality controls
Checks before work is counted complete
- Source and instruction version check
- Required-field completeness sample
- Saved record compared with supporting evidence
- Exception ownership and closure review
Review rhythm
Inspect evidence, not activity alone.
Review routine work and exceptions. Compare the source with the saved output, required fields, approval limits, and accepted handoff. When several items expose the same ambiguity, repair the instruction before increasing volume.
Examples
How the operating boundary works in practice
Routine work with complete inputs
The assistant follows the approved rule, records the evidence, completes the evidence brief update, and leaves a clear audit trail.
An exception needs judgment
The assistant records what is known, pauses the consequential action, and routes the decision to the named owner with a response target.
Frequently asked questions
Set the rules before live work begins.
What should be ready before research assistance begins?
Prepare the source queue, current instructions, examples, system access, required output, approval limits, and an available exception owner.
What decisions stay with our team?
Your team retains policy, commercial, legal, financial, employment, security, and other consequential decisions. The assistant works within documented routine authority.
How is quality reviewed?
Sample completed work beside its source evidence, check required fields and handoffs, then repair unclear instructions before increasing scope.
Build the brief
Bring the queue, systems, examples, and decision owners.
We will use those inputs to define the role, access, handoffs, and review cadence before matching support.
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