The Principles
First, five principles
The five ideas every practice grows from.
Every practice in the four parts of this guide grows out of one of these five ideas. Internalize them and the practices will start to generate themselves.
Carry a Day 1 Answer.
Before you do the work, write the answer you would give if forced to deliver right now. One paragraph. Update it as you learn. Most people start projects with a question and a calendar; the best ones start with a hypothesis and try to break it. You stop wandering the moment you’re willing to be wrong on paper.
Back-plan from the end product.
Draft the final artifact first: the slide, the doc, the announcement, the architecture review. Then plan the work needed to produce it. We call it a ghost deck. It’s the cheapest way to discover that half your planned analysis won’t matter, and that the part you skipped is the part the audience will actually want.
Ask “So what?” until it hurts.
An observation isn’t an insight. “Latency increased 12% in Q2” is observation; “latency increased 12%, costing roughly $40k per week in churn, fixable with a two-week index migration” is insight. The fastest way to look senior in writing is to ask “so what?” after every sentence and either elevate it or cut it.
Be MECE.
Mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive.When you break a problem into pieces, the pieces shouldn’t overlap, and together they should cover the space. If a teammate proposes three options and you can think of a fourth, the structure isn’t yet MECE, and naming the fourth is the most useful thing in the room.
Lead with the answer.
BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. Every message, doc, deck, and meeting opens with the conclusion. Then the reasons. Then the supporting detail. Readers can stop at any level and still have what they need.
The fuller version is Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle, taught at McKinsey to every new consultant: top-down for the executive, bottom-up for the analyst. If anyone has to scroll to find your point, you buried it. The cleanest career signal in writing there is.
Carry a Day 1 Answer, back-plan from the end product, ask “so what?” ruthlessly, force your structure to be MECE, and always lead with the answer. The rest of this guide is just tools for doing those five things in less time.
About the author
Eric Tribe is a strategic advisor and operator. Works with Pioneer Square Labs. Former CRO at Flashfood, with over a decade at BCG before and McKinsey after.