synthesize-research

A structured method for turning a pile of qualitative user research into ranked insights and roadmap recommendations. It is meant for situations where there are interview notes, survey responses, usability tests, analytics, support tickets, or sales-call notes to make sense of, and the user wants to extract themes, rank findings by frequency and impact, and convert raw feedback into recommendations. Research can be supplied as pasted text or uploaded files, or pulled from connected systems such as a knowledge base, user-feedback tool, product analytics, or meeting transcription, with the skill first asking what the user has, how many sources or participants there are, what question or hypothesis is being investigated, and what decisions the research will inform.

The processing pipeline extracts key observations, verbatim quotes, behaviors versus stated preferences, pain points, positive signals, and context from each source, then groups them into themes, counts frequency across participants, and assesses impact severity. A priority matrix sorts findings into high/low frequency crossed with high/low impact, and the synthesis output is a defined document: a research overview, five to eight key findings (each with a one-sentence statement, attributed evidence, frequency, impact, and a high/medium/low confidence level, ordered by frequency times impact), user segments or personas, opportunity areas, prioritized recommendations tied back to specific findings, and open questions for further investigation.

The methodology section details the techniques the skill applies: thematic analysis through familiarization, initial coding, theme development, review, refinement, and reporting; affinity mapping with one observation per note, free re-clustering, and respect for outliers; and triangulation across methods, sources, and time to strengthen findings, treating disagreement between sources as a signal of distinct segments. Specific guidance on interview-note analysis stresses distinguishing behaviors from attitudes, flagging workarounds as unmet needs in disguise, attributing quotes by participant type rather than name, and trusting behavioral evidence over stated preferences. After generating the synthesis the skill offers to refine framing and to produce artifacts like persona documents, opportunity maps, research presentations, or follow-up research plans.