Writing for outcomes

Written by Miraka Davies. Originally published here.

Part I: How to structure a business document

I don’t do templates

People are always asking me for templates.

Have you got a report template, Miraka? A business case template, Miraka? A template that will save all the woes of the world, Miraka?

I’ll spare you the clichés about length of string and teaching men how to fish: I DON’T DO TEMPLATES.

Templates are only good if they’re designed for a specific purpose. There is no such thing as ONE magical template for any kind of document.

But we do have some really clear insights into reader behaviour. And from that, we can build a strong, successful, fit-for-purpose document structure.

What readers want

As humans, when we interact with text, we’re subconsciously looking for 3 things.

1. What’s this about?
2. Is it relevant to me?
3. What’s the bottom line? (and we want that up-front — ‘BLUF’)

The importance of the executive summary or up-front framing

If you can answer those 3 questions before you do anything else in a business document, you’ve got your reader in the palm of your hand.

They’re hooked. They’re engaged.

And they’ll keep reading (or at least scanning through).

It’s like mad-genius-evil-mastermind-writing-ninja material — so use your powers for good.

Answering those 3 questions is the basic formula for an executive summary.

Of course, you can add more — but those are the bare minimum.

If you don’t want to use an executive summary, make sure those 3 questions are answered in your introduction (or background, or scope, or whatever heading your douchebag template tells you is the starting point for saving the planet).

Let’s test this concept — what do you want as a reader?

Picture yourself going to your car and finding a piece of paper under the windscreen wiper.

(Note: Your version may contain less profanity. Whatever floats your boat.)

1. What the f*ck is this? You wonder.

(You pick it up and see a company logo — it’s a flyer, not a ticket, thank f*ck)

1. What are they selling? You wonder.

(There are pictures of food. It’s a restaurant. You’ve been known to eat occasionally. There’s potential here.)

1. So are the prices any good? You wonder.

(That’s the bottom line — now that I know what they have to offer and that I’m interested, this is the deciding factor. Let’s say they’re cheap AF and sound worth trying so we have a happy ending to our scenario. You’re welcome.)

The rest of the document structure depends on content and purpose.

In a nutshell: the rest of your document needs to be structured in terms of what is most relevant to your reader, and then what they need to know so that you can achieve your purpose.

Note the difference here — it’s not about what you want them to know — it’s about what they need to know from where they sit. Those can be vastly different things.

Part II: How to structure a business document

In my trainings, structure is one of the most common things participants say they want help with.

They hope I’m going to give them a standard report structure. *snort* That’s like unicorn farts — would probably be really lovely but there’s no such thing. Sorry bout it.

In part one I covered the upfront framing that -

1. gives readers an incredibly satisfying experience, and
2. engages the right audience.

But I promised more.

So let’s move from reader behaviour to a reader-centric document structure.

Let’s be very clear about how documents work

1. You’re writing a document because you need to achieve something. An outcome.
2. To achieve YOUR outcome, the document has to work for THEM — the reader.
3. The upfront framing either engages or loses your reader (we’ve already covered this)
4. The structure of the rest of the document determines its success (ie — YOUR outcome).
5. Shall I say it again? Write for them. Not for you. That’s the only way you’re going to ultimately get what you’re after.

Purpose, purpose, bla, bla, bla

Any writing trainer worth their salt will tell you to:

identify the purpose of a document before you start writing.

This is true. But I find purpose — both the word and the concept — problematic.

Firstly it’s overly and inappropriately used as a heading (how many documents have you read that have the heading purpose followed by a waffly, non-specific introduction??).

And second, when I ask people what the purpose of their document is, they give me answers like –

• to inform… (for what purpose? We don’t tell people stuff for no reason)
• to analyse… (documents don’t analyse things. People do)
• to define… (see above)
• to describe… (see above above. For what purpose?)

None of which give a writer the drilled-down clarity we need to develop a fit-for-purpose structure.

Instead, I train people to ask 2 questions:

1. What does this document need to ACHIEVE?
2. If this document works, what will HAPPEN?

Both questions direct us to a tangible, observable action by our reader.

Know your audience, bla, bla, bla

Again, everyone tells us this.

And it’s true.

But what’s most common in business documents today is that we have multiple audiences, with differing needs.

So knowing that can make the writing process even more daunting and definitely not simple and clear.

How about trying this as an alternative?

List all the readers of your document, then consider:

• Who will access it?
• Who will use it?
• Who will sign off on it?
• Who might need to refer to it?

Now look back at the solid outcome you identified with questions 1 & 2.

And ask the 3rd question:

1. Who has the authority, ability, or position to make this document achieve its purpose?

Answer that and you’ve identified your primary readers.

They matter the most.

Write in a way that works for them, above anyone else.

(By the way — this also gives you the ability to push back when an approver wants a document written a certain way, but you know that won’t work for the end-user. Handy!)

Now create the headings/sections/chunks of your document

With clarity on outcome and readers of influence, you can now create a fit-for-purpose structure.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and tell you what that structure looks like. But again, unicorn farts.

From where YOU sit, with YOUR knowledge, expertise and insight, and with the new clarity about purpose and readers, YOU have all the pieces to the puzzle. You can create a structure that will work best.

Ask yourself -

• What does my primary reader need to know so I can get my desired outcome?
• Does my primary reader need to know X (ie, any chunk of information) for my doc to achieve its purpose?

It’s all connected.

Part III: Tools for document structure

OK, so you’ve taken care of your up-front framing, and you’ve started to drill down to the clarity you need to write an amazing, fit-for-purpose document that’s gonna help you take over the universe.

But now you’ve got to the real guts of it:

what do you actually write???

(Press play for dramatic sound effect.)

Why is writing so hard?

So here’s the thing. You know your stuff. And that’s both a blessing and a curse, because

1. you know everything your reader needs to know, but
2. YOU KNOW FAR MORE THAN YOUR READER NEEDS TO KNOW!

And you really want your reader to know all that, too. Which is a mistake.

Because let me be clear: the more words you use, the weaker the message.

Yes, I said it.

The key to good writing is to write less.

The more words you use — the more text on a page, the more you think in someone’s general direction — the more likely they are to miss your point. Your bottom line. Your slap in the face. Or kick in the ass. Or pat on the back (I thought I’d better add in a warm fuzzy — apparently my violent alter-ego is writing today).

A process for stripping back

First of all, read and follow the steps I gave you in part 1. Then part 2. There’s stuff in there you need to produce before you follow this process.

Once you’ve nailed that, do this:

1. DUMP — get that shit out of your head. Brain dump. Sketch, purge, free-write, list, use post-its. Do whatever you need to do, to get your thinking outside of your head. Because outside is where you can work with it.
2. CHUNK — take that messy dump and group it together into chunks of related info. (If you wanna feel really cool, call this a thematic analysis.)
3. LABEL — describe each of those chunks of info. But don’t use one-word labels. Describe the chunk, like ‘How we got here’, ‘What we found’, ‘How we can fix the problem’. These will become your headings. And your readers will love them!
4. FILTER — using the purpose and the primary reader you identified in part 2, look at each beautifully labelled chunk and ask Does my reader need to know THIS for my document to achieve its purpose? Now here’s the gold (I love this. I’m excited. Can you tell?). If your answer is:

• YES — put it in! YUSS!
• NO — leave it out! DUH.
• MAYBE / I’M NOT SURE / SOME READERS NEED IT — then either mention it, summarise it, point the reader to where they can find it outside of the document, or push it to the appendices. When in doubt, go to the appendix. It’s like magic. All the evidence that you know your stuff and you’ve done a shitload of work and you’re worth your weight in gold, without losing your reader.

5. ORDER — look at the chunks you have left and put them in order based on what’s most important to YOUR READER.

Now you have a plan!

Some people might call it an outline.

But that sends way too many of us back into PTSD-like flashbacks from our university days.

So let’s just call it a plan. A map, maybe.

That plan means you can now write. With ease and clarity. Without second-guessing yourself and angsting over what to say or what not to say.

It means you can write fast and that’s good on every level (read here for how good writing saves money).

Your extra set of steak knives

My favourite thing about this process is this:

it gives you confidence!

It’s one of the most common comments I get from participants in my trainings:

I feel confident now. I know what I’m doing. I can relax. (Press play for a heavenly chorus celebrating your amazingness.)

And that, my friends, is what it’s all about. Now write!

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