Exec Materials Review

Executive Materials Review

Review persuasive documents the way a skeptical decision-maker will read them — with facts and narrative examined separately, methodically, and on the record.

Purpose

Executive materials fail in two independent ways: the facts are wrong, or the argument doesn't survive a skeptical reader. Mixing the two examinations makes both worse — a compelling narrative launders weak facts, and a wrong number distracts from a broken argument. This skill keeps them separate because they have different verdicts: a fact claim resolves to a status (verified / discrepancy / unverifiable), while a narrative gap resolves only through author judgment (fix it, reframe it as intentional, or convert it into the ask).

Principles:

• Two tracks, two logs, never merged. Fact findings and narrative findings go to separate running logs, because they have different fix workflows and different lifecycles (facts re-verify per document version; narrative direction is a one-time author decision).
• Criteria before judgment. State the evaluation criteria before reporting any narrative finding, because unanchored review collapses into taste and is unfalsifiable.
• Verbatim claims, exact-quote proofs. The fact track quotes the document verbatim and the source verbatim, because paraphrase is where verification errors hide.
• Analysis before edits — always. Present narrative findings and stop. Author direction changes fixes materially: a "contradiction" may be the intended nuance, and a weakness may become the ask. Editing first destroys those options.
• A gap has three resolutions, and only the author picks: fix it, make it explicitly intentional, or convert it into the ask.
• New claims enter through the fact queue. Any factual claim added during revision gets flagged for fact-check rather than silently inserted, because it bypassed the corpus the fact track verified against.
• Logs are append-only running docs. One dated entry per pass, traceable to the document version checked, because the document will be revised repeatedly and stale verdicts must be distinguishable from current ones.

When to Use

Use when:

• The user asks to review, critique, fact-check, or stress-test a deck, memo, business case, one-pager, or any document whose job is to persuade a decision-maker
• A work product is headed to an executive, investor, hiring manager, or board and the user asks "is this convincing?" or "is this right?"
• A reviewed document was revised and needs a re-check pass (append a new dated entry to the existing logs)

Do NOT use when:

• The material is code or a pull request (use a code-review skill)
• The user wants prose style polish only (use a writing-style skill)
• The document is informational with no decision being sought (a reference doc has no "ask" to evaluate — the fact track may still apply alone)

What It Governs

The methodology for examining executive materials, the separation between fact and narrative examination, the required structure of both running logs, and the edit-gating rules. It does NOT govern: the visual design of the document, sourcing new research (it verifies against an existing corpus; gaps in the corpus are findings, not research tasks), or the author's final judgment calls.

Process

Step 0 — Setup (both tracks)

1. Identify the document, its version (path + last-modified), the audience, and the decision sought. If the decision sought is unclear, that is narrative finding #1 — do not invent one.
2. Locate or create the two logs next to the work product:
   • fact-check-log.md
   • narrative-review-log.md
   • If a running log already exists for this document under another name, append to it — do not create a duplicate.
   • Each log starts with a one-paragraph header stating what it is and its entry format, then dated entries separated by ---.
3. Decide which tracks run this pass. They can run in either order or in parallel, but each pass declares what it is NOT checking: the fact pass ignores whether the argument works; the narrative pass states "facts assumed true pending fact-check."

Track F — Fact examination

1. Write the methodology statement first, at the top of the entry: what corpus was checked against (e.g., a sources/ folder only), whether live data pulls were made, and the per-claim test. Standard test for data claims: what is measured, over what window, in what unit, does the math reproduce, and does our mental model match the data provider's.
2. Inventory every checkable claim, verbatim, with its location (slide/section). Everything with a number, date, quote, attribution, legal holding, or named event is checkable. Walk the document in order so coverage is auditable.
3. Apply the per-class rules:
   • Quoted statistics: must match the source text or dataset exactly. A number that appears nowhere in the corpus is a Discrepancy even if plausible.
   • Derived figures: reproduce the arithmetic and state the basis. A per-day rate computed on calendar days versus workdays differs by more than 40% — the document must own one basis. Label Derived, not Verified.
   • Rounding: flag direction — rounding up overstates; note it even when minor.
   • Legal/case claims: check holding, court, and decision date against the filing itself; label material from unadjudicated complaints as allegations.
   • Event claims: a specific event with a specific date needs a source documenting both. General support for the trend does not source the event ("the market shifted" ≠ "the policy was withdrawn in May").
   • Interpretive claims: where the document characterizes rather than quotes, check whether the source actually says that ("costs doubled" when the source says "costs are rising"); label Interpretive with the real quote alongside.
   • The references themselves: verify titles, authors, dates, docket numbers. Miscited sources are findings.
4. Use a fixed status taxonomy: Verified / Verified w/ rounding / Derived / Interpretive / Discrepancy / Unverifiable from sources / Unsourced event / Misquoted citation.
5. Lead the entry with a severity summary table (issue → severity: Fix / Re-source / Soften / Note basis / Minor), then the full per-section claim tables, then a bottom line paragraph stating whether the core argument's load-bearing facts reproduce.
6. Do not fix the document from the fact track. Findings route to the author (or to the narrative track if a correction breaks an argument — see Reconciliation).

Track N — Narrative examination

1. State the criteria explicitly before any finding. Default set for persuasive exec material — adapt, never skip:
   • Answer-first structure (is the conclusion up front, or earned?)
   • A clear decision to make (does it end with something the exec can say yes to?)
   • Stakeholder economics (who pays / why they'd pay / what it's worth — not just problem size)
   • Timing coherence (does "why now" hold together internally?)
   • Why-us (versus incumbents, in-house, or nobody)
   • Objection pre-emption (are the skeptic's questions answered before asked?)
2. Read the whole document before judging any part.
3. Name the load-bearing strengths first — the assets that edits must not break. Not flattery: identify the moves doing the persuasive work.
4. Report gaps ranked by decision-impact. Phrase each as the skeptic's question it fails to answer ("a sharp exec will ask X in seconds") — this makes findings testable rather than stylistic.
5. Run the internal-consistency pass: check every headline claim against the document's own body, captions, footnotes, and other sections. The document's own concessions are the strongest evidence of overclaim.
6. Stop. Present findings. Do not edit. For each gap, offer the three resolution paths: fix / reframe as explicitly intentional / convert into the ask.
7. On author direction: log each finding as gap → author's direction → resolution in the narrative log's dated entry, then apply edits — in the author's voice and design system. Any new factual claim added gets a flagged reference ("to be confirmed in fact-check") and a line in the fact log's queue.

Reconciliation (after both tracks have run)

1. Fact corrections that change a load-bearing number or date → note in the narrative log (does the argument still hold at the corrected value?).
2. Narrative revisions that added or reworded claims → queue in the fact log for the next pass.
3. Each log's next entry re-checks against the new document version; note the version examined.

Known Gotchas

Output Specification

Both logs live in the document's directory. Append-only; one dated entry per pass; the newest entry states the document version (path + last-modified or commit) it examined.

fact-check-log.md — per entry:

• Header: date, document version checked, methodology statement (corpus, live pulls or not, per-claim test)
• Severity summary table: # | Issue | Severity (Fix / Re-source / Soften / Note basis / Minor)
• Per-section claim tables: Claim (verbatim) | Proof (exact quote / computed) | Source | Status | Checked (date)
• Citation-accuracy table for the references themselves
• Bottom line: do the load-bearing facts reproduce, and which fixes matter

narrative-review-log.md — per entry:

• Header: date, document version, audience, decision sought, declared scope ("facts assumed true pending fact-check")
• Criteria used
• Load-bearing strengths
• Findings table: # | Gap | Author's direction | Resolution (direction/resolution filled in after the author responds — a presented-but-unanswered pass leaves them blank)
• Open items: inputs still needed from the author; claims queued for fact-check

Plus, when Track N reaches step 7: the edited document itself, revised in the author's voice.

Examples

Positive

"Is this pitch deck convincing to an investor? The numbers are being checked separately."

• Track N only. Declare "facts assumed true pending fact-check." State the six criteria, name the load-bearing strengths (e.g., a reframe that converts a hard problem into a tractable one), rank gaps as the investor's questions, run the self-consistency pass (catching a headline the deck's own appendix contradicts), present, and stop. Log to narrative-review-log.md once the author responds per-finding.

"Fact-check this market-sizing memo against the sources folder."

• Track F only. Methodology statement, verbatim claim inventory, per-class rules, status taxonomy, severity summary, citation-accuracy pass, bottom line — all in a dated fact-check-log.md entry. No opinion on whether the argument works.

Negative

"Review this PR before I merge."

• Not this skill — code review has its own skills and criteria.

"Make this paragraph punchier."

• Not this skill — pure style work with no examination of facts or argument. Use a writing-style skill.