The Findings Brief — Worked Example and Template

Use this to write a one-page brief on any finding your research produces. The guidance under each heading says what the section is for; replace it as you write.

Keep the whole brief to one page: a brief that needs two pages usually contains two briefs. The annotated worked example shows every section done well.

The Header

TO: the person who can make this decision
FROM: you, or your team
RE: the finding, in a few words — name the mechanism, not a group
DATE: the date · One page

The Decision

One or two sentences. What are you asking this leader to decide? Write it so they can say yes or no to it. This is the first thing they read — a busy leader who reads nothing else should know what's being asked.

Trap: restating your finding, or naming a goal ("improve communication"), is not a decision. Nobody can say no to a goal, which means nobody has to say yes.

Where This Sits in Our Findings

One sentence, only if you ranked several findings: where this one landed and the stated reason why. If your ranking used two passes — impact and feasibility, then equity — say honestly what each pass did.

This sentence should already exist: it's the reason you wrote down when you placed the finding.

What We Found

The finding, carrying its mechanism. Say what is happening and to whom, in the terms the people affected used — a short verbatim quote often does what no summary can. If the finding differs across groups, keep the why visible: name the circumstance that separates the people it fails from the people it doesn't, not just the group label.

Trap: recommendations hide here. If a sentence says what the agency should do, it belongs in the last section.

How We Know, and What We Don't

Two or three sentences on method: what data, how much, how you tested your themes. Then the honest limits: what this method can and cannot tell you — a qualitative finding tells you how a service fails people, not how many — and who your data could never have reached. Each limit should point at a next step, not apologize for this one.

This is the sentence from the workshop: what the finding rests on, and what it does not prove.

What We Recommend

Your judgment, clearly separate from your evidence. A leader should be able to disagree with this section without distrusting the one above it. If the honest recommendation is "decide to find out more," say that — it's a real recommendation. Name what happens next and by when.

Trap: a recommendation that has crept into "what we found" costs you the finding. When a leader disagrees with a fix that was filed as evidence, they throw out the evidence with it.

Before It Goes

• Can the leader say no to the first sentence?
• Does "what we found" contain any sentence that says what the agency should do?
• Is the finding named by its mechanism, not by a group?
• Does the brief say what the method cannot tell you, and who it could never have reached?
• Is it one page?

Everything you write with this is a draft until someone who owns the decision has read it — that's what it's for.

Back: The Worked Example, Annotated

Print or save the worked example and the template, both pages, as a PDF