start-research

| 1. Research | EXPLORE - ideas, feasibility, market, business | ◀ HERE | | 2. Discussion | WHAT and WHY - decisions, architecture, edge cases | | | 3. Specification | REFINE - validate into standalone spec | | | 4. Planning | HOW - phases, tasks, acceptance criteria | | | 5. Implementation | DOING - tests first, then code | |

| 6. Review | VALIDATING - check work against artifacts | |

Stay in your lane: Explore freely. This is the time for broad thinking, feasibility checks, and learning. Surface options and tradeoffs — don't make decisions. When a topic converges toward a conclusion, that's a signal it's ready for discussion phase, not a cue to start deciding. Park it and move on.