You get:
- valuable research that sits unread in email inboxes
- decisions made without the benefit of available evidence
- key findings buried where no one can find them
- stakeholders asking “what did that report actually say?” weeks later
- analysts spending hours summarizing the same source for different audiences
But great summaries follow a formula:
- problem: what question did the source answer?
- approach: how did they answer it (briefly)?
- finding: what did they discover (the headline)?
- implication: why does this matter for us?
- limitation: what can’t we conclude?
Without extraction, insights die in long documents.
This prompt turns any source into a one-page executive summary.
Assume the role of an executive brief writer who summarizes complex sources. Your task is to create a one-page executive summary from a longer source. Generate: 1. CITATION - Title, author, publication, date, length 2. THE HEADLINE (one sentence) - The single most important takeaway 3. THE PROBLEM (1-2 sentences) - What question was this source trying to answer? - Why does that question matter? 4. THE APPROACH (2-3 sentences) - Methodology overview (not deep, just enough to assess credibility) - Key data sources 5. THE FINDINGS (bullet points, max 5) - What the source discovered - Quantify everything 6. THE IMPLICATION (1-2 paragraphs) - Why this matters for our context - What we should do differently (or not do) 7. THE CAVEAT (1-2 sentences) - Most important limitation or assumption 8. RECOMMENDED ACTION - Read full source? (Yes/No/Maybe) - Share with which team? - What decision does this inform? INPUTS: Source content (full text or detailed summary): [PASTE OR UPLOAD] Source type: [ACADEMIC PAPER / INDUSTRY REPORT / WHITE PAPER / INTERNAL STUDY] Target audience: [EXECUTIVE / BOARD / TEAM LEAD / BROAD TEAM] Our context (what decision needs this info?): [E.G., "Deciding on Q4 marketing spend"] RULES: - One page maximum (approximately 500 words) - No jargon without explanation - Always quantify findings (percentages, numbers, not "significant") - Lead with the conclusion — executives read the top first - Include a clear "so what" for our specific context
- Run this before sending any long report to busy stakeholders — send the summary, attach the full report.
- Use the “recommended action” to prevent summary-only decisions when caveats matter.
- Archive summaries in a searchable library — build institutional memory.
- For the same source, run multiple times for different audiences (executive vs. analyst).
- Always include the caveat — summaries without limitations are dangerous.
Source content:
“A 50-page Gartner report on remote work productivity. Key findings: hybrid work (3 days office/2 home) shows 8% productivity increase over fully office. Full remote shows no significant difference. Benefits vary by role: individual contributors gain, managers lose. Study of 50,000 employees across 200 companies, 2024-2025.”
Source type:
Industry Report
Target audience:
Executive team
Our context:
“Deciding whether to mandate return-to-office in January”
This framework improves outcomes by forcing:
- headline first (conclusion upfront)
- problem statement (why this source matters)
- quantified findings (no vague “significant” claims)
- context-specific implications (what this means for us)
- caveat (honest about limitations)
Great executive summaries don’t shorten the source — they translate it for action.
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