# Interview research format

Use when a PM (or researcher) synthesizes qualitative user interviews into themes and a recommendation for
reviewable sign-off. For desk/literature research or a quantitative study, use `research-report.md` instead.

## Great instance

- Opens with the question and the decision it will inform, so reviewers judge the synthesis against a real call.
- Grounds every theme in verbatim participant quotes, kept as blockquotes reviewers can anchor.
- Reports frequency and severity, not false-precision confidence scores.
- Ends with recommendations that each have an owner.

## Cut

- Raw transcripts (link them; synthesize here).
- Quotes buried inside table cells where they can't be anchored or read.
- Themes with no evidence, or recommendations with no owner.

## Skeleton

```markdown
# <research question>

## Decision this informs
<the call this research is meant to unblock>

## Participants
| Role / segment | N | Recruit source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| <segment> | 5 | <where from> |

## Method
<how interviews were run: format, length, script focus>

## Themes
### <Theme 1>
<what we heard, and how often>

> "<verbatim participant quote>" — P3, <segment>

## Frequency and severity
| Theme | Frequency | Severity |
| --- | --- | --- |

## Recommendations
- <recommendation> — owner: <name>

## Limitations
<who we did not talk to, and what that biases>
```

## Section prompts

- Keep verbatim quotes as blockquotes (`> `), one per line — they become the strongest, most anchorable evidence.
- One `h3` per theme so each is its own commentable section.
- Say what the sample can't tell you; reviewers trust honest limitations.

## Renderer moves

Catalog: ../building-artifacts.md#what-each-file-type-becomes - md doc reader sections; participant + severity table anchors; blockquote quote anchors.