# Interview Me

Interactive interview that formalizes a fuzzy research idea into a structured spec (RQ...

- Repository: https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow (1676 stars)
- Category: Writing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-09-27
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill interview-me -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill interview-me -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill interview-me -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow --skill interview-me -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Interactive interview that formalizes a fuzzy research idea into a structured spec (RQ, hypotheses, identification, data needs, empirical strategy). Use when user says "interview me", "help me think through this idea", "I have a half-baked idea", "formalize this into a project", "walk me through framing a study". Multi-turn Q&A; saves spec to disk. NOT for lit review (`/lit-review`) or ideation from scratch (`/research-ideation`).

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Research Interview

Conduct a structured interview to help formalize a research idea into a concrete specification.

**Input:** `$ARGUMENTS`, a brief topic description or "start fresh" for an open-ended exploration.

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## How This Works

This is a **conversational** skill. Instead of producing a report immediately, you conduct an interview by asking questions one at a time, probing deeper based on answers, and building toward a structured research specification.

**Do NOT use AskUserQuestion.** Ask questions directly in your text responses, one or two at a time. Wait for the user to respond before continuing.

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## Interview Structure

### Phase 1: The Big Picture (1-2 questions)
- "What phenomenon or puzzle are you trying to understand?"
- "Why does this matter? Who should care about the answer?"
- After the user answers, optionally ask: "Do you have a sense of what *kind* of paper this would be, reduced-form / structural / theory+empirics / descriptive / formal-theory / survey-experiment / unsure?" (See `.claude/agents/methods-referee.md` for the type definitions and `.claude/references/discipline-cards.md` for field-default frequencies.) Record the answer in the saved spec under the `**Paper type:**` header field; "unsure" is fine and is recorded as `**Paper type:** unsure`.

### Phase 2: Theoretical Motivation (1-2 questions)
- "What's your intuition for why X happens / what drives Y?"
- "What would standard theory predict? Do you expect something different?"

### Phase 3: Data and Setting (1-2 questions)
- "What data do you have access to, or what data would you ideally want?"
- "Is there a specific context, time period, or institutional setting you're focused on?"

### Phase 4: Identification (1-2 questions)
- "Is there a natural experiment, policy change, or source of variation you can exploit?"
- "What's the biggest threat to a causal interpretation?"

The rest: https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow/blob/HEAD/.claude/skills/interview-me/SKILL.md