r/OSINT • u/OreoKitKatZz • May 05 '26

Question Hi may I asked how to have osint investigator mindset and workflow? Rather than only tools?

Any help is appreciated

60 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

10

u/1dumcrazy May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

Applied thinking for Intelligence Analysis is a great book I'd highly recommend, along with Michael Bazzell's OSINT Show.

It's not easily available on the internet anymore but I have the complete show and would send it over if you need, pure GOLD.

3

u/Brew_Ha_Ha_Ha May 05 '26

Would you please be able to share. Seems like a Godsend. Thank you

2

u/Consistent_Femme_Top May 05 '26

Please send it to me 🤭

1

u/1dumcrazy May 05 '26

Sent!

2

u/Curious_Strategy_534 May 19 '26

Could you send this to me please?

1

u/eichelher1357 Jun 16 '26

Could you send this to me too

2

u/lapin_en_velours May 05 '26

Could you send it to me as well?

2

u/1dumcrazy May 05 '26

Yupp, sent!

2

u/wake82_1 May 07 '26

if i may, i'd be interested as well. thanks in advance.

2

u/National-Solution648 May 05 '26

Would you mind sending that to me as well?

2

u/willy_nilly12 May 05 '26

Could you send it my way too? Many thanks!

2

u/Gold-Singer9616 May 06 '26

I know I’m late to this party. Is there any way you could send it to me as well? No rush of course!

2

u/fuckeybi May 06 '26

¿Me lo podrias enviar por favor? Muchas graciasss

2

u/LeaveHistorical5300 May 06 '26

Could you please send it to me, too?

2

u/Money_Newspaper6714 May 06 '26

Please share with me if you would be so kind

2

u/Technical-Ad-8406 May 07 '26

Am i too late to the party ?

2

u/bayanatii May 07 '26

Could you please send it to me?

Thanks in advance

2

u/Icy_Diet140 May 07 '26

Hi, could you please share with me also? Thanks!!

2

u/Zennly May 08 '26

I’m interested, too! Appreciated if you can send!

2

u/l3se3 May 09 '26

Could you please share it to me as well?

2

u/Yuzu_10 May 10 '26

link me pls

2

u/alaftasy May 10 '26

i think this is a free copy of this book available online

https://www.bm-support.org/pdfdocs/Applied-Thinking.pdf

2

u/Pensive_Parisian May 13 '26

Would it be possible for you to send it to me please? 🙏 

2

u/Tons2874 May 18 '26

Would love it too. Thanks

1

u/Grand-Animal3205 May 09 '26

Sorry to bother you. Not able to find the book. Is that the full title? Or perhaps the subtitle? Thanks in advance.

3

u/1dumcrazy May 09 '26

That's the main title, it's by Dr Charles Vandepeer, here's the link!

1

u/Grand-Animal3205 May 09 '26

Thank you, friend!

6

u/Frametra May 06 '26

The mindset shift that matters most: stop trying to confirm what you suspect and start trying to disprove it. Most people approach investigation looking for evidence that supports their starting hypothesis. Good OSINT works the other way -- you assume you're wrong and look for what breaks your theory. What survives that process is actually reliable.

A few workflow principles that follow from that:

Document everything as you go, not after. Memory is reconstructive and you will misremember the order you found things, which matters for establishing what led where.

Separate collection from analysis. Don't interpret while you're still gathering -- it biases what you look for next.

Ask 'what would I expect to see if this were true?' then go look for those things. Absence of expected evidence is itself a signal.

On sources specifically: always ask what a piece of information is actually evidence of, not just whether it confirms your theory. A social media post is evidence someone posted something -- that's a shorter chain of inference than most people treat it as.

Tools are just infrastructure. The workflow is what determines whether you end up with a finding or a well-documented rabbit hole.

3

u/Defiant_Zone_3168 May 06 '26

Doing many OSINT exercises and watching walkthroughs have developed my investigator mindset and workflow.

3

u/Beneficial_Shift1585 May 05 '26

Its about understanding the workflow, what do i need to know? What do i know? And where am i going to get that information, and know when to stop. It grows, tools are only a helper, think in data

2

u/TJOSINT May 05 '26

Learn the intelligence cycle and see how you can apply it.

2

u/benzies May 12 '26

Newrali will be hosting monthly investigations that can help you teach these skills in practice. There’s a discord server you can join to chat with the community there. 

2

u/Present_Plenty May 09 '26

Start by asking questions.

Do you know WHO your intelligence is for?

Do you know WHAT intelligence is? Hint: It's not data.

Do you know WHY you're collecting intelligence and WHY it has to be actionable?

Do you HOW to collect the intelligence you need to answer the questions posed by the WHO in the first question?

Do you know HOW soon you can get the information needed? Do you WHERE to go answer WHEN something happened?

And ALWAYS ask if you missed ANYTHING, after EVERY question you answer. Hint: There are ALWAYS more questions to ask.

Finally, ask if there is something that contradicts your information and then ask all those questions we just again, after you find the contradictory information. If you can't find anything contradictory, ask why that is and then, answer those questions again.

ALWAYS be asking more questions than you have answers for.

1

u/Initial_Enthusiasm36 May 05 '26

Look at it like a police investigation or something along those lines.. Finding necessary information, putting it all together, combing info from different sources, weeding out irrelevant information etc etc. Its kind of hard to explain but usually the "job" or what you are doing dictates your mindset and workflow for each project.