# From business research to confirmed work

Discovery has five steps. Each step uses the information collected in the preceding steps. You do not select source checkboxes or choose a generic interview template.

## 1. Research and contact

Enter the public business name and website. All four research areas are selected by default: company overview, customer communities, competitors and their channels, and industry news and feeds. Each area uses one Exa request and returns up to five pages. The default selection uses four requests from the ten-request daily allowance. Finding a community or feed does not subscribe to it.

Read the results in Collected sources. Research text is available to the contact email and meeting guide automatically. Import is optional when you also want a page in the evidence history. Public research does not establish internal duties or reporting lines.

Enter the name and email of your point of contact. Add agreed meeting details if available. Choose **Draft contact email**. The draft asks the contact to invite the leaders who should attend, provide the participating people's names, emails and departments, describe responsibilities, and consider the company's goals, vision and problems. It does not assume supplier onboarding or any other internal workflow.

Edit the subject, message and preliminary questions. **Save contact request** creates a private request. Preview the branded email, then choose **Send invitation email**. Saving and sending are separate actions. The contact can speak or type answers on their private page. Their response appears in this discovery journey and the evidence history tools.

## 2. Leadership meeting

Choose **Prepare meeting guide**. The guide uses public research and the contact's actual reply, when available. It groups questions for the live discussion: scope, customers and value, goals, people and responsibilities, and next steps. The advisor uses the guide during the meeting.

After the meeting, paste the transcript or your notes into **Capture the leadership meeting**. Review the notes, then save them. These notes are accepted as the advisor's account of the meeting and become the source for team dossiers. They do not establish independent proof of every claim. Direct Fireflies import is not connected; paste an authorized transcript here.

## 3. Review the team

Choose **Build team dossiers**. AI extracts the people, departments, roles, manager emails and duties stated in the kickoff notes and contact reply. Missing information stays blank. Public research cannot create the internal roster.

Review each person's dossier. Correct an email or role, add a stated duty, or remove a mistaken suggestion. Every saved person needs an email, role and department. **Save reviewed team** records the roster and responsibilities. Existing work records remain available in the workspace; a new roster does not silently erase them.

## 4. Team interviews

Choose **Create question sets**. AI prepares one tailored interview for every person in the reviewed team. It uses their role, reviewed duties and leadership context. Questions ask about a real example: what starts the work, what is needed, what they do, the tools they use, what they produce, who receives it, and where decisions or delays occur.

Review the questions and email messages, then **Save all personal requests**. **Send pending team invitations** sends each person's private request in sequence. A confirmed email-service receipt is skipped on later batch attempts. An uncertain result stops the batch for review. Open each request to inspect its email preview, delivery attempt and original questions.

The recipient opens the private link and signs in or creates a participant password. Voice is preferred: a real example helps capture steps, exceptions and frustrations. Typing is also available.

After recording, they save the clip, create and check its transcript, and add it to their answer. **Create my task cards** uses the configured AI service to extract their work. They check the input, action, output, destination and software. Each card is marked **This matches my understanding**, **Remove — this is not my task**, or **I'm not sure — ask the advisor**. Edits require another check before sending.

Their original answer and reviewed descriptions arrive together. This is their understanding of the work, not company approval of ownership or agent permissions. If AI is unavailable, they can send the answer without cards for advisor review. See [Review your task cards before sending](25-participant-review.md).

## 5. Review task cards

Start with the descriptions people have already reviewed. Open their returned responses to see their original account, corrections and decisions. Retained cards are proposed tasks, with the participant as performer; accountable ownership still needs review. Removed cards remain in the response history.

Accept the original evidence after reviewing it. Resolve missing owners, overlapping responsibilities and handoff differences with the relevant people. This release does not automatically detect cross-team conflicts. **Draft task cards** remains available for answers sent without cards and for further analysis; check existing cards before saving more to avoid duplicates.

A participant's initial check records their understanding. Company-level task confirmation still uses the existing exact-version owner/performer rules. A changed description may need another check. Agent proposals come afterward; this process does not grant access or deploy an agent.