Cold Start Strategy

The user knows nothing — they want to publish at a top venue but have no idea what to research.

Questioning Protocol

All SOPs in this strategy follow these rules:

• One question at a time — never overwhelm with multiple questions
• Prefer multiple choice when possible — easier to answer
• Always allow "unsure" / "TBD" as legitimate answers
• Always ask WHY — not just "what do you want" but "why do you want it"
• After user answers: confirm understanding before continuing
• If user's answer reveals new information: immediately follow up
• If user declines to answer (privacy): accept, note that downstream work becomes broader/more iterative

Available Tactics

Default Flow (reference only)

actor-profiling → landscape-reconnaissance → direction-narrowing
→ obstacle-analysis → goal-decomposition → north-star-synthesis

This is a reference, not a mandate. You decide the actual execution path.

Iteration Points

• From obstacle-analysis: may return to landscape-reconnaissance, direction-narrowing, or obstacle-analysis itself
• From goal-decomposition: may return to landscape-reconnaissance, direction-narrowing, obstacle-analysis, or goal-decomposition itself

How to Use This Strategy

You are the general. This strategy gives you:

1. A default flow as starting reference
2. Available tactics with their purposes
3. Iteration points where backtracking makes sense

What you decide:

• Whether to execute a tactic fully or partially
• Whether to skip a tactic entirely
• Whether to invoke individual SOPs directly (bypassing tactic framing)
• When to iterate and where to return to
• When enough information exists to move forward

The only non-negotiable: the process ends with north-star-synthesis producing a North Star + ResearchBrief that the user confirms.