A question with a decision behind it, and one named reader.
4b · ask a business question
Design for a decision, not a chart count
Start with the example, then try it yourself. The last case is optional practice.
Meet Elena.
Elena connects a report to the work behind it. She helps trace the evidence, explain the limits of a number, and choose what to investigate next.
Elena · Reporting lead
The case
A report that made no decisions
Choose the report's reader and the decision they can take before selecting charts.
Charts
Twelve, plus a filter panel
Requested as
"Visibility into follow-through"
Covers
Everything anybody might want
Decisions it makes for the reader
None
Where the work went
To the reader, which is what it was meant to do for them
Your task
Choose the evidence that answers the staffing question. Leave out measures the reader can’t use.
Need a little guidance?
You’re done when: The brief states a population, window, outcome, and decision owner.
A report that tries to serve everybody usually leaves every decision to the reader.
Need a reminder? Reopen the worked example
Watch one example first
An operations owner needs the eligible requests that stalled; a budget owner needs outcome and cost boundaries. Both can use the same metric definition with different explanations and next actions.
Why this follows from the evidence
Choose the reader’s decision before the chart. Changing emphasis need not change the population or calculation.
GTM Lab
Saved locally
Metric Dictionary and Reporting Brief · 0 of 9 sections started
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Case evidence
A report that made no decisions
Charts
Twelve, plus a filter panel
Requested as
"Visibility into follow-through"
Covers
Everything anybody might want
Decisions it makes for the reader
None
Where the work went
To the reader, which is what it was meant to do for them
The surface above shows everything, which means it decided nothing. Write the question, then pick the one person it is for.
Check the case below to save your activity result and this chapter’s prepared example plan section. You can inspect that template in the saved plan above; no live records are changed.
Inspect the prepared example
Choose evidence for the staffing question
The report asks what share of qualified inbound requests reached a booked conversation last quarter, and where the rest stopped. Include outcome evidence and the follow-up detail the owner can act on; leave out activity that does not answer that request.
Restoring this data activity…
Optional: compare alternative reasoning
The case tool above saves your result and completes this activity. These comparisons are extra practice; they do not change your saved plan.
Work the case · 0 of 2 sections drafted
A question, and one reader
Compare these alternatives one section at a time. Check a choice to see its consequence; the draft summary below keeps the proposed changes together.
Step 1 of 2
Which of these has a decision behind it?
This is a proposed draft until the chapter check runs. Selecting a choice alone does not complete the chapter.
