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Communicate · Choose, Review

Executive summary

The version an executive will actually read. Written last, read first, and the only part of most documents that changes anything.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose, 05 Review
Works at
All levels
Maturity
Early startup → Large organisation
Time
An hour, after everything else is finished

What it is

A standalone compression of a longer piece of work into the conclusion, the reasoning and the implication. Distinct from an introduction, which orients a reader before they read on; a summary substitutes for reading on.

The conclusion
What you found or what you recommend, first. Everything else supports it.
The reasoning
Why, in compressed form. Enough that a reader can judge whether the conclusion follows.
Implications
What follows for the reader — what they should do, decide or change.
Standalone integrity
It must work alone. Most readers will read this and nothing else, and it should be written on that assumption.
Honest inclusion
The uncomfortable findings included rather than left in the body. Omitting them is a form of misrepresentation and is always discovered.
The mistake people makeA summary of an unfinished argument is a shorter unfinished argument. If it will not compress cleanly, that is a signal about the work underneath rather than about the writing.
What it’s forYou have the full strategy and need the version an executive will actually read.
What it’s not forThe strategy is incomplete. A summary of a muddle is a shorter muddle.

How you run it

  1. Write it lastA summary written first is an outline. It can only summarise something that exists.
  2. Lead with the conclusionThe answer, then why, then what follows. Not the journey — the destination and the route in that order.
  3. Make it standaloneAssume it is the only part read, because for most readers it will be. It must make sense with nothing else in front of them.
  4. Include the uncomfortable findingA summary that omits the difficult conclusion is a misrepresentation, and the omission is always noticed later.
  5. Cut by half, then check it still holdsThe discipline is what produces the clarity. If cutting breaks it, the argument was carrying weight it should not have been.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

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Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A completed piece of work
  • Clarity on what you want the reader to do
  • Discipline to cut

You’ll end up with

  • A summary that stands alone
  • The recommendation and its reasoning in a few hundred words
  • No new information not supported below

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAfter action reviewAI opportunity mapAssumption log