one-page-recommendation-writer

name

one-page-recommendation-writer

description

Reshapes analysis into a one-page, answer-first recommendation: the recommendation up top, three supporting arguments with evidence, the options eliminated and why, and the risks. Use this skill whenever the user has done the thinking and needs to communicate it, asks to "write my recommendation", "make this a one-pager", "structure my findings", "how do I present this", or has a pile of analysis that needs to become a crisp, persuasive page. Trigger it when someone is about to bury their conclusion at the bottom of a long document, even if they don't ask for a "one pager". This is how you make a decision-maker act on your work.

One-Page Recommendation Writer

A senior audience wants the answer first. They will decide whether to keep reading based on your opening line, and they will judge your thinking by whether you show what you ruled out. A recommendation that builds slowly to its conclusion at the end — the way a school essay does — makes a busy executive work to find the point, and loses them.

This skill reshapes analysis into a single answer-first page. The persuasive core is not the choice itself; it is showing what you eliminated and why. The choice is just the conclusion of that elimination.

The structure

Always produce this shape:

RECOMMENDATION
[One sentence. The answer. What should happen, by whom, and the headline reason.]

WHY — three arguments
1. [Argument] — [the evidence beneath it]
2. [Argument] — [the evidence beneath it]
3. [Argument] — [the evidence beneath it]

WHAT WE RULED OUT
[The main alternatives considered and the specific reason each was rejected.]

RISKS AND NEXT STEPS
[The one or two real risks, and what would change the recommendation. Then the immediate next step.]

Three disciplines make it strong:

1. Answer first, always. The recommendation is the headline, not the payoff at the end. If the user's draft builds up to the answer, invert it.
2. Aim for exactly three arguments, and make them MECE (non-overlapping, and together they cover the case). Three strong, distinct reasons persuade; five overlapping ones dilute. If two arguments are really the same point, merge them and find a genuinely different third. But if only two arguments are truly evidenced, two strong ones beat a padded third — say that is the trade you are making rather than inventing a filler argument.
3. Show the elimination. "What we ruled out" is where the thinking lives. A recommendation with no rejected alternatives reads as if you only ever considered one option, which is not a decision, it is a preference.

Flag unsupported claims. If an argument has no evidence beneath it, say so rather than dressing it up — an assertion with no support is a weak point a sharp reader will find first.

How to run it

If the user wants to sharpen their own thinking, ask them for their one-line recommendation first, then pressure-test whether their arguments are truly MECE and truly evidenced. If they just want it written, take their raw analysis and reshape it into the structure, but call out anywhere the evidence is thin or an alternative is missing.

Keep it genuinely to one page: roughly 350 to 450 words. If the content overflows, that usually means the arguments aren't yet distilled. When you can produce files, offer the finished page as a .docx or .md file as well — a one-pager's natural home is a document that can be forwarded, not a chat message.

Where this breaks

Answer-first assumes you actually have a defensible answer. When the analysis is genuinely inconclusive, leading with a firm recommendation overstates your confidence — in that case, lead with the decision the reader faces and the two viable options, and be explicit that the evidence doesn't yet point one way. Also, some audiences (a regulator, a technical review) genuinely want the full reasoning trail before the conclusion; adapt the shape when the reader's need calls for it.

Style

Crisp and confident. The recommendation line should be sharp enough to repeat from memory. Prose in the arguments, not fragments. Define any term plainly. No em dashes. It must fit on one page.