The Three-Lens Research Brief
A research prompt for Directors, Senior Directors, and SVPs who need to stay current across their industry, their function, and AI — without adding hours to their week.
Configure Your Lenses
Fill in your industry, function, and the AI question most live for you right now.
Copy and Paste
Copy the prompt and paste it into any AI assistant: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot.
Act on the Output
Use the quality checklist to evaluate what you got, then decide what warrants your attention.
Before copying the prompt, fill in the table below. The more specific you are, the more targeted the output. Click any cell in the right column to edit it directly.
| Lens | Your configuration (click to edit) |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Function | |
| Live AI question |
Replace the green placeholders with your specifics, then paste into your AI assistant of choice.
You are a senior research analyst helping a in stay current across three domains: their industry, their function, and AI as it applies to their work.
Industry:
Function:
Current priorities:
Produce a structured intelligence brief across three lenses. For each lens, provide: 2-3 key developments worth paying attention to right now, 1 implication for someone in my specific role, and 1 question I should be asking that I am probably not asking yet.
What is happening in right now? Focus on structural shifts, competitive dynamics, regulatory changes, and workforce trends. Exclude general business news unless it has specific implications for this sector.
What is evolving in as a discipline? What are practitioners rethinking or experimenting with? Focus on operating model changes and approaches moving from early-adopter to mainstream.
What do I specifically need to understand about AI as it applies to in ? Focus on: what early adopters are actually doing (not what vendors are promising), where AI is producing demonstrable results vs. where it is still largely hype, and what decisions I may face in the next 6-12 months that will be shaped by AI.
- Grounded in operational reality, not vendor marketing
- Specific enough to be actionable, not generic trend-speak
- Distinguishes between "AI is being tried" and "AI is demonstrably working"
- Flags anything where the evidence is thin or the claim is contested
- Relevant to a Director-SVP decision-making scope
One page maximum per lens. Lead with the implication, not the background. Use plain language. End with a "What I Would Watch This Quarter" list of 3-5 items. If you do not have high-quality signal on something, say so directly.
All green fields are filled in? You can also fine-tune any line directly above, then copy.
Append any of these to the prompt above for a more targeted output.
Add: "Go deeper on [topic]. Give me the best available evidence, including where experts disagree."
Add: "Before I rely on this report: flag the methodology, potential conflicts of interest, and what it doesn't cover."
Add: "I have [meeting] coming up on [topic]. What are the 3 most important things I should know going in, and what question should I be prepared to answer?"
Add: "Based on what I've described about our current AI state, what are 2-3 things organizations at this stage most commonly get wrong? Be direct."
- Did the AI tell me something I didn't already know, or did it reflect my own assumptions back at me?
- Are the examples specific (named organizations, quantified outcomes, dated evidence) or vague references to "leading companies"?
- Did it flag anything as uncertain, or did everything sound equally confident?
- Is the AI section based on what is actually happening, or what vendors and consultants are promoting?
- Do the implications connect to a real decision I face, or are they generic advice?
If any of these fail, add to your prompt: "Your response was too general. Give me specific examples with dates, organizations, and measurable outcomes. If you don't have them, tell me that directly."
Use this to calibrate where your inputs are coming from and what they're actually good for.
- Vendor marketing and sponsored contentAwareness only — treat as advertising, not evidence
- Trade media and LinkedIn postsTrend awareness, not a basis for operational decisions
- Industry analyst reports (Gartner, Forrester, etc.)Useful for benchmarking — always check the methodology
- Named peer case studies with outcomesStrong pattern recognition — verify the context matches yours
- Primary research with stated methodologyBest written source — evaluate methodology before acting
- Direct conversations with peers who've done itHighest signal — what no report can replicate
An AI assistant is most useful for synthesizing steps 2–5. It can also help you figure out who to call for step 6.
Getting the information is step one. Knowing what to do with it is a different conversation — and that's what we do.
Let's Talk