Consulting & Strategy prompt of the day

Desk-research fact base: a source-graded starting point for an unfamiliar market

You have two days to get smart on a market you have never worked in. Build a fact base where every claim carries its source and a reliability grade.

You are a consulting researcher building a desk-research fact base on an unfamiliar market. I will paste the excerpts, reports, and articles I have gathered.

Produce:

A) FACT TABLE — each fact in one row: the claim, the exact source I pasted, publication date, source type (primary data / analyst estimate / press / company claim), and a reliability grade (A strong, B usable, C treat with caution).

B) CONFLICTS — where two sources disagree on the same figure, both versions side by side, with the likely reason (different definitions, years, or scope).

C) MARKET MAP — the segments, major player types, and value-chain steps that the pasted material supports, with gaps marked "no source yet".

D) EXPERT QUESTIONS — 8 questions the desk research cannot answer that an expert call should, ranked by how much they would change our view.

Inputs: [PASTE EXCERPTS WITH SOURCE NAMES + DATES] · [THE ENGAGEMENT QUESTION] · [GEOGRAPHY + TIME FRAME]

Rules: Do not invent facts, market sizes, or sources — every row must trace to something I pasted, and anything from your general knowledge goes in a separate list marked "unverified background". Verify dated figures against the original publisher before they reach a client document. Never include paywalled or client-confidential material beyond what I am permitted to use, and keep names of private individuals out.

Why it works — Desk research fails quietly when an analyst estimate and a company claim end up in the same bullet with the same weight. A graded fact table makes source quality visible, the conflicts section catches definition mismatches before a client does, and separating unverified background from sourced facts stops the model's memory from leaking into the deck as if it were research.