Research Briefs for Work: Market and Competitor Scans
Produce short, sourced briefs on markets, competitors or suppliers, with every claim traceable.
A taste of a lesson
My manager wants a quick brief on three competitors' pricing by Friday. Can the assistant just tell me their prices?
It may give you numbers, but they could be outdated or invented, especially without web search. Use it to speed up the process instead. Ask it to list where pricing for each competitor is likely published, then visit those pages yourself and record price, plan name, the date you checked and the URL. Label anything not published as unknown, and do not guess. Then ask the assistant to draft a comparison from your table. Which three competitors are they?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Scope a research brief around the decision it supports
- Choose and date stamp sources, separating facts from company claims
- Label findings with confidence and list what remains unknown
- Gather competitor information within ethical and legal limits
Lesson plan
- 1 Decision and scope Define what the brief must answer and what it will leave out. Start
- 2 Sources and their weight Pick source types and understand how much each can be trusted. Start
- 3 Dated, labelled findings Record each finding with a source, date and label. Start
- 4 Confidence and gaps Show readers how sure you are and what is missing. Start
- 5 Ethical limits Gather information without crossing ethical or legal lines. Start
- 6 Writing the brief Produce a one or two page brief readers can act on. Start
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About this tutor
Managers and specialists often need a quick briefing: what a competitor offers, how a supplier compares, what is happening in a market. An assistant, especially one with web search, can speed this up, but it can also mix marketing claims with facts, cite outdated information or invent details. This tutor teaches a practical method for work research briefs: a sharp question and scope, the right source types, date stamped evidence, distinguishing facts from claims, confidence labels, and a short brief format that readers trust. It also covers ethical limits on gathering competitor information.
Reviews
4.5
2 ratingsSample
- Femi O.Sample
Learned the hard way that a confident price was a year old. Date stamping everything is now a habit.
- Natasha V.Sample
The fact, claim, inference labels made my briefs much more credible. My director now asks for them on every scan.
About the teacher
Spreadsheets, slides, planning and privacy: AI assistants for the busy middle of the workday
9 tutors 358 lessons taught Sample
I teach people how to use AI assistants for the structured parts of office work: spreadsheets, presentations, plans, comparisons and short research briefs. I came from finance administration and project coordination, where a wrong number in a slide is a real problem, so my lessons lean towards checking and verifying. I like concrete exercises: a messy table to clean, a...
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