Tier 4

eg - Exploratory Goals

Exploratory Goals

Input: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

Most goal procedures assume you know what success looks like. Exploratory goals are different: success IS the discovery. You don’t know what you’re looking for until you find it. Requires breadth before depth, surprise as signal, and flexible termination.

Steps

Step 1: Define the Exploration Space

  1. What domain/space are you exploring?
  2. Boundaries? (in scope vs out)
  3. Why explore? What motivated this?
  4. What would a valuable discovery look like? (even vaguely)
  5. What would make the exploration a waste?

Step 2: Choose Exploration Strategy

Knowledge LevelStrategyApproach
Know nothingRandom samplingWide, shallow passes
Know the dimensionsSystematic sweepCover each dimension
Know some regionsExpand from knownExplore adjacent areas
Have a hunchDirected searchFollow hunch, verify no tunnel vision

Allocate 70% exploration, 30% exploitation of findings. Set checkpoints to reassess.

Step 3: Set Discovery Criteria

  1. What counts as a “finding”? Minimum threshold: surprising, useful, or connective
  2. What counts as “significant”?
  3. Recording format (log, tags)

Step 4: Execute Exploration Passes

Per pass:

  1. Define scope (which region)
  2. Execute using chosen strategy
  3. Record: what found, what surprised, what questions raised, what connects
  4. Rate: noise / minor / interesting / significant
  5. After each pass: continue here or move to new region?

Step 5: Synthesize

  1. Cluster findings by theme
  2. Identify patterns across findings
  3. What’s the emerging picture?
  4. What are biggest surprises?
  5. What new questions emerged?

Step 6: Decide Next Direction

  • Go deeper: One finding warrants deep investigation → targeted goal
  • Go wider: More to discover → another pass
  • Stop: Diminishing returns → document and close
  • Pivot: Exploration revealed the REAL question → redefine
EXPLORATION REPORT:
Space: [description]
Strategy: [strategy]
Passes: [N]
Findings: [N total, N significant]

Key discoveries:
1. [discovery] — [significance]
2. [discovery] — [significance]

Patterns: [what findings suggest together]
Open questions: [still unknown]
Recommendation: [deeper / wider / stop / pivot]

When to Use

  • Research without a hypothesis
  • Entering a new domain
  • Creative brainstorming
  • When you don’t know what you don’t know

Verification

  • Space defined with boundaries
  • Strategy chosen and justified
  • Discovery criteria set before exploring
  • Findings recorded systematically
  • Synthesis performed
  • Next direction decided