Report Writing

Report Writing — Analysis, Status & Decisions

Write reports that communicate findings clearly, support decisions with evidence, and respect the reader's time — from one-page status updates to in-depth analyses.

When to Use This Skill

USE when:

• Writing executive summaries or board reports
• Creating status reports or project updates
• Writing postmortems or incident reports
• Producing competitive analyses or market research
• Summarizing data analysis for non-technical stakeholders

DON'T USE when:

• Writing persuasive proposals → use /proposal-writing
• Writing marketing content → use /copywriting
• Writing technical documentation → use /technical-writing

Step 1: Report Types & Templates

Executive Summary

# [Topic] — Executive Summary

**Date:** [date]
**Author:** [name]
**Audience:** [who this is for]

## Bottom Line
[1-2 sentences — the single most important takeaway. If the reader
stops here, they have the answer.]

## Key Findings
1. [Finding with supporting metric]
2. [Finding with supporting metric]
3. [Finding with supporting metric]

## Recommendation
[What action should be taken, by whom, and by when]

## Risk / Trade-offs
- [Upside of recommendation]
- [Downside or risk of recommendation]
- [What happens if we do nothing]

## Supporting Data
[Brief chart, table, or summary — NOT a data dump.
Link to full analysis for those who want details.]

Status Report

# [Project/Team] Status Report — [Period]

**Status:** 🟢 On Track / 🟡 At Risk / 🔴 Blocked

## Summary
[2-3 sentences — what happened this period, overall trajectory]

## Completed
- [Deliverable/milestone completed]
- [Deliverable/milestone completed]

## In Progress
| Item | Owner | Due | Status | Notes |
|------|-------|-----|--------|-------|
| [item] | [name] | [date] | [%/status] | [blockers if any] |

## Blockers & Risks
| Issue | Impact | Mitigation | Owner |
|-------|--------|-----------|-------|
| [blocker] | [effect] | [plan] | [name] |

## Next Period Goals
- [ ] [Goal 1]
- [ ] [Goal 2]
- [ ] [Goal 3]

## Metrics
| KPI | Target | Actual | Trend |
|-----|--------|--------|-------|
| [metric] | [target] | [actual] | ↑↓→ |

## Decisions Needed
[Any decisions that require stakeholder input — be specific about
what you need decided, by whom, and by when]

Postmortem / Incident Report

# Incident Report: [Incident Title]

**Severity:** [P0-Critical / P1-High / P2-Medium / P3-Low]
**Date:** [when it happened]
**Duration:** [how long it lasted]
**Author:** [who wrote this report]
**Status:** [Resolved / Monitoring / Open]

## Summary
[2-3 sentences — what happened, who was affected, what the impact was]

## Timeline (all times in [timezone])
| Time | Event |
|------|-------|
| HH:MM | [First sign of issue] |
| HH:MM | [Alert triggered / reported] |
| HH:MM | [Investigation began] |
| HH:MM | [Root cause identified] |
| HH:MM | [Fix deployed] |
| HH:MM | [Confirmed resolved] |

## Impact
- **Users affected:** [number or percentage]
- **Duration:** [total downtime or degradation]
- **Revenue impact:** [if applicable]
- **Data loss:** [none / details]

## Root Cause
[Specific technical or process root cause — not "human error."
What systemic condition allowed this to happen?]

## Contributing Factors
- [Factor 1 — why the root cause wasn't caught earlier]
- [Factor 2 — why the blast radius was larger than expected]

## Resolution
[What was done to fix the immediate issue]

## Action Items
| # | Action | Owner | Priority | Due | Status |
|---|--------|-------|----------|-----|--------|
| 1 | [preventive action] | [name] | P1 | [date] | TODO |
| 2 | [detective action] | [name] | P2 | [date] | TODO |

## Lessons Learned
- [What went well during the response]
- [What could have gone better]
- [What surprised us]

Competitive Analysis

# Competitive Analysis: [Market/Category]

**Date:** [date]
**Author:** [name]

## Market Overview
[Current landscape — size, growth, key trends]

## Competitor Comparison

| Dimension | Us | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|-----------|----|-------------|-------------|-------------|
| **Pricing** | [plan] | [plan] | [plan] | [plan] |
| **Key Feature 1** | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial |
| **Key Feature 2** | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial | ✓/✗/Partial |
| **Target Market** | [who] | [who] | [who] | [who] |
| **Strength** | [what] | [what] | [what] | [what] |
| **Weakness** | [what] | [what] | [what] | [what] |

## Positioning Map

      HIGH PRICE
          │
Premium   │   Enterprise
Niche     │   Full-Suite
          │

NARROW ─────┼───── BROAD │ Emerging │ Mass Market Disruptor │ Value Play │ LOW PRICE

## Threats & Opportunities
### Threats
- [Competitor move or market trend that could hurt us]

### Opportunities
- [Gap in competitor offerings we can exploit]

## Recommended Actions
1. [Specific strategic action with rationale]
2. [Specific strategic action with rationale]

Data Analysis Report

# [Analysis Topic] — Findings Report

**Date:** [date]
**Analyst:** [name]
**Data source:** [where the data came from]
**Period:** [date range analyzed]

## Key Takeaways
1. [Most important finding — lead with the insight, not the method]
2. [Second finding]
3. [Third finding]

## Methodology
[Brief: what data, what analysis, what tools. Enough to reproduce, not
a textbook chapter. Link to code/notebook for details.]

## Findings

### Finding 1: [Headline — insight, not description]
[Narrative explanation supported by chart/table]

[Chart or table — ALWAYS with a title and labeled axes]

**Implication:** [What this means for the business]

### Finding 2: [Headline]
[Continue pattern...]

## Limitations
- [Data gap or bias acknowledged]
- [Methodological caveat]

## Recommendations
| Recommendation | Expected Impact | Effort | Priority |
|---------------|----------------|--------|----------|
| [action] | [metric improvement] | [Low/Med/High] | [1/2/3] |

## Appendix
[Detailed tables, methodology notes, raw data references]

Step 2: Writing Principles for Reports

The Pyramid Principle (Minto)

START WITH THE ANSWER:
  ✗ "We analyzed 50,000 user sessions over 3 months using a
     combination of cohort analysis and regression modeling,
     and after controlling for seasonality, we found..."
  ✓ "Churn is driven by onboarding failure — 68% of churned users
     never completed setup. Here's what the data shows."

STRUCTURE: Answer → Supporting arguments → Evidence

  ANSWER: "We should expand to the EU market."
    ├── ARGUMENT 1: "Market size is $2.4B with 12% CAGR"
    │   └── Evidence: [market data, analyst reports]
    ├── ARGUMENT 2: "Our product already handles EU compliance"
    │   └── Evidence: [feature comparison, legal review]
    └── ARGUMENT 3: "3 competitors exited, leaving a gap"
        └── Evidence: [competitor analysis, market share data]

Data Presentation Rules

CHARTS:
  ✓ Every chart has a title that states the INSIGHT, not the data
    ✓ "Revenue growth accelerated after pricing change"
    ✗ "Revenue by Quarter, 2024-2026"
  ✓ Label axes, include units
  ✓ Use consistent colors across charts
  ✓ Choose the right chart type:
    Comparison: Bar chart
    Trend: Line chart
    Composition: Stacked bar or pie (if ≤5 segments)
    Distribution: Histogram
    Relationship: Scatter plot

TABLES:
  ✓ Sort by the most important column (not alphabetically)
  ✓ Right-align numbers, left-align text
  ✓ Include totals/averages where relevant
  ✓ Highlight outliers or key rows (bold)

NUMBERS:
  ✓ Round appropriately (revenue: $2.4M not $2,387,421.73)
  ✓ Use relative AND absolute ("dropped 23%, from 1,200 to 924")
  ✓ Provide context ("23% — our largest quarterly decline since 2022")

Step 3: Audience-Specific Adjustments

C-SUITE / BOARD:
  Length: 1-2 pages + appendix
  Lead with: Bottom line, recommendation, risk
  Avoid: Methodology details, technical jargon
  Include: Strategic implications, financial impact, decision request

MANAGEMENT:
  Length: 3-5 pages
  Lead with: Summary, key findings, action items
  Avoid: Raw data, exhaustive analysis
  Include: Owner assignments, timelines, resource needs

PEERS / TECHNICAL TEAM:
  Length: As needed
  Lead with: Findings and approach
  Include: Methodology, data sources, code references, limitations
  Audience can handle: Technical detail, nuance, uncertainty

Output

Save reports to artifacts/reports/[type]-[topic]-[date].md

Guidelines

• Lead with the answer, not the journey — readers want conclusions, not chronological narratives
• One report, one purpose — status reports inform, analyses recommend, postmortems prevent recurrence
• Every number needs context — "42ms response time" means nothing without "target: <100ms"
• Blameless postmortems are more useful — focus on systems, not individuals
• If the report is longer than 2 pages, it needs an executive summary
• Use /technical-writing for clarity and editing principles
• Use spreadsheet or xlsx for supporting data tables
• Use pdf or docx for final formatted delivery