research

/octave:research - Context-Aware Research & Prep

Research prospects and prepare for calls, meetings, demos, outreach, and deal reviews. Adapts output based on the occasion—whether you're prepping for a discovery call, following up on a deal, or researching a new prospect.

Usage

/octave:research <target> [--for <occasion>]

Examples

/octave:research john@acme.com                       # General research
/octave:research acme.com                            # Company research
/octave:research john@acme.com --for discovery       # Discovery call prep
/octave:research "meeting with Acme Corp" --for demo # Demo prep
/octave:research acme.com --for outreach             # Cold outreach angles

Occasions

Occasion	Output Focus
discovery	Questions to ask, pain points to probe, qualification criteria
demo	Use cases to show, proof points to cite, objections to prepare for
follow-up	Next steps, open questions, momentum builders
outreach	Hooks, angles, personalization points, CTAs
general	Comprehensive research (default)

Deal coaching? Use /octave:pipeline for deal-level strategy, stalled deals, multi-threading, and competitive deal coaching.

Instructions

When the user runs /octave:research:

Step 1: Parse Input and Detect Occasion

Identify the target:

• Email address → Person research
• Domain → Company research
• LinkedIn URL → Person research
• Name + company → Person research
• Meeting/deal description → Context-based (extract company/people)

Detect or ask occasion:

If --for not specified, infer from context or ask:

What are you preparing for?

1. Discovery call - First conversation, qualifying the opportunity
2. Demo - Showing the product, proving value
3. Follow-up - Continuing a conversation, next steps
4. Outreach - Cold/warm outreach, getting a response
5. General research - Just want to know more

TIP: For deal coaching and pipeline review, use /octave:pipeline

Your choice:

Step 2: Research the Target

For Person:

# Try to enrich the person
enrich_person({
  person: {
    email: "<email>",           # if provided
    linkedInProfile: "<url>",   # if provided
    firstName: "<first>",       # if provided
    lastName: "<last>",         # if provided
    companyDomain: "<domain>"   # if provided
  }
})

# Also get company context
enrich_company({ companyDomain: "<domain>" })

# Match to personas
qualify_person({
  person: { ... },
  additionalContext: "Match to our buyer personas and playbooks"
})

For Company:

# Enrich the company
enrich_company({ companyDomain: "<domain>" })

# Qualify against ICP
qualify_company({
  companyDomain: "<domain>",
  additionalContext: "Evaluate fit against our segments and playbooks"
})

# Find key contacts
find_person({
  searchMode: "people",
  companyDomain: "<domain>",
  fuzzyTitles: ["<titles from matching persona>"],
  limit: 5
})

Gather Library Context:

Use MCP tools:

# Find matching playbook
search_knowledge_base({
  query: "<company industry> <persona title> <identified pain points>",
  entityTypes: ["playbook"]
})

# Get relevant proof points
search_knowledge_base({
  query: "<company industry> <company size> results",
  entityTypes: ["proof_point", "reference"]
})

# Get competitor context if detected
search_knowledge_base({
  query: "<any competitor signals>",
  entityTypes: ["competitor"]
})

Step 3: Generate Occasion-Specific Output

Discovery Call Prep

See discovery-call-prep.md for the discovery call prep output template.

Demo Prep

See demo-prep.md for the demo prep output template.

Outreach Prep

See outreach-prep.md for the outreach prep output template.

Step 4: Offer Follow-Up Actions

After any research output, offer relevant next steps:

What would you like to do next?

1. Generate outreach content (/octave:generate)
2. Create collateral for this account (/octave:pmm)
3. Research additional people at the company
4. Deep dive on a specific topic
5. Save notes to [CRM integration if available]
6. Done for now

MCP Tools Used

Research Operations

• enrich_person - Full person intelligence report
• enrich_company - Full company intelligence report
• qualify_person - ICP scoring for person
• qualify_company - ICP scoring for company
• find_person - Find contacts at company

Content Generation

• generate_call_prep - Generate full call prep materials

Library Context

• get_playbook - Get recommended playbook
• get_entity - Get persona, competitor details
• search_knowledge_base - Find proof points, references, messaging

Error Handling

Person Not Found:

I couldn't find detailed information for [email/name].

I found their company ([Company]). Would you like me to:

1. Proceed with company research + generic persona guidance
2. Search for them on LinkedIn (provide URL)
3. Create research based on their title alone

Company Not Found:

I couldn't find [domain/company name].

Try:

1. Check the domain spelling
2. Provide the company website URL
3. Search by company name instead

No Matching Playbook:

No playbook matches this profile exactly.

Closest matches:

• [Playbook 1] (60% fit)
• [Playbook 2] (45% fit)

I'll use [Playbook 1] as a guide, but you may want to create a more specific playbook.

Related Skills

• /octave:generate - Generate outreach content
• /octave:pmm - Create account-specific collateral
• /octave:prospector - Find more prospects like this one
• /octave:analyzer - Analyze past interactions with this account
• /octave:pipeline - Deal-level coaching (stalled deals, multi-threading, competitive)
• /octave:abm - Full account-based planning with stakeholder mapping
• /octave:battlecard - Competitive intelligence for deals