---
name: insight-to-recommendation-translator
description: "Converts a raw data finding into a stakeholder-ready recommendation using a headline-first structure: the so-what, the business implication, a specific recommended action, expected impact, confidence level, and the risk of inaction. Use when translating analysis results into an executive summary, a readout slide, a Slack update, or a decision memo for a non-technical or cross-functional audience."
argument-hint: "[data-finding] [audience]"
allowed-tools: ["Read"]
---

# Insight-to-Recommendation Translator

## Purpose
Turn a single data finding into a decision-ready recommendation narrative — leading with the "so-what," stating the business implication, and prescribing a specific action with expected impact and confidence — so stakeholders can act without decoding the analysis. Solves the recurring problem of analysts reporting *what happened* when leaders need to know *what to do about it*.

## When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Turn a data finding, chart, or metric shift into a stakeholder recommendation
- Write the "so-what" or executive summary for an analysis
- Prepare a readout, slide narrative, or decision memo from analysis results
- Rewrite a technical finding for a non-technical or cross-functional audience
- Add a recommendation or "next steps" to a report that only describes what happened
- Draft a Slack/email update that pushes a decision, not just shares a number

## Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- **The finding**: The raw result, metric, trend, or observation (with numbers if available)
- **Audience**: Who receives this — executive / cross-functional peers / a specific function (e.g., marketing, product, finance)
- **Decision at stake**: What decision or action this finding should inform
- **Supporting evidence**: Sample size, time period, data source, or method (for confidence calibration)
- **Business context**: The goal, target, or metric this connects to
- **Format target**: Slide narrative / decision memo / Slack-or-email update / verbal talking points

If audience is unspecified, default to cross-functional leadership. If confidence inputs (sample size, time period) are missing, note the assumption and flag confidence as "Directional."

## Instructions

### Step 1: Isolate the "So-What"
Compress the finding into one sentence that states its meaning, not its measurement.
- **Weak (measurement)**: "Trial-to-paid conversion dropped from 22% to 17% in Q3."
- **Strong (meaning)**: "One in four trials that used to convert now don't — we're leaving roughly $X on the table each month."
- Rule: if the sentence could be read off a dashboard, it's not a so-what yet. Push to the consequence.

### Step 2: Name the Business Implication
Connect the finding to a metric, goal, or dollar figure the audience already cares about.
- Translate the finding into the audience's currency: revenue, cost, retention, growth rate, risk, or time.
- Quantify the implication where possible ("this is ~$X/month" or "at this rate we miss the annual target by Y%").
- If the audience is a specific function, frame the implication in *their* terms (finance → margin; product → activation; marketing → CAC).

### Step 3: Prescribe a Specific Recommendation
State one primary recommended action — an imperative, not an observation.
- Format: "Recommend [specific action] by [owner or team] to [expected outcome]."
- Make it decidable in one meeting — a leader should be able to say yes, no, or "not yet" without a follow-up study.
- If more than one action is warranted, present a **primary recommendation** plus at most two secondary options, ranked.
- Avoid hedging verbs ("consider," "explore," "look into") unless the finding is genuinely exploratory — then say so explicitly.

### Step 4: Attach Expected Impact and Confidence
Give the recommendation a size and a certainty.
- **Expected impact**: Quantify or bound it ("recover ~$X/month," "lift conversion 2–4 points"). If you can't quantify, state direction and magnitude ("meaningful," "marginal").
- **Confidence level** — assign one and justify in a clause:
  - **High**: Large sample, consistent across segments/time, clear mechanism
  - **Moderate**: Solid signal but limited sample, short window, or one segment
  - **Directional**: Early or thin evidence — treat as a hypothesis to test
- Be honest about confidence; a High-confidence label on thin data destroys trust faster than a modest finding.

### Step 5: State the Cost of Inaction
Give the audience a reason this can't wait — or explicitly say it can.
- One sentence: what continues to happen, compound, or worsen if no action is taken.
- Tie it to the same currency as the business implication for consistency.

### Step 6: Assemble the Recommendation Narrative
Compose the pieces into the **headline-first** structure — recommendation on top, evidence below, so a skimming reader gets the decision in the first two lines:
1. **Headline** (the so-what + recommendation in one or two sentences)
2. **What we found** (the finding, briefly, with the number)
3. **Why it matters** (business implication)
4. **What we recommend** (action + owner)
5. **Expected impact & confidence**
6. **Cost of inaction**

Calibrate language to the format target: tighten to 3–4 sentences for Slack/email; expand to full sections for a memo; convert to a one-line-per-bullet build for a slide.

## Output Format
- **Structure**: Headline-first — recommendation and so-what appear before supporting detail
- **Length**: 150–350 words (Slack/email at the low end; decision memo at the high end)
- **Format**: Structured narrative with bolded section labels; slide format converts sections to build bullets
- **Sections**: Headline → What we found → Why it matters → What we recommend → Expected impact & confidence → Cost of inaction
- **Tone**: Confident and plain-spoken — an analyst who has already done the thinking and is briefing a decision-maker, not walking through methodology

## Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] The headline leads with meaning and a recommendation — not a metric readout
- [ ] The business implication is stated in the audience's currency (revenue, cost, retention, risk, time)
- [ ] The recommendation is a specific imperative with an owner — decidable in one meeting
- [ ] A confidence level (High / Moderate / Directional) is assigned and justified in a clause
- [ ] Expected impact is quantified or explicitly bounded, not left vague
- [ ] Cost of inaction is stated in one sentence tied to the same currency

## Notes
- The single most common failure is stopping at Step 1 — describing the finding without prescribing an action. Always land on a recommendation.
- Match confidence to evidence, not to how much you want the recommendation to land. A "Directional" label invites the right conversation ("let's test this") rather than false certainty.
- For executive audiences, the headline and confidence level often carry the whole decision — write those two elements as if they're the only things that get read.
- When a finding genuinely supports no action yet, the correct recommendation is "hold and monitor, revisit at [trigger]" — state it explicitly rather than manufacturing an action.

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## How to use this skill

This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.

**Installing in Claude Code:**
- `~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)
- `<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)

Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.

**Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:**

1. Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
2. Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits

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*To any AI assistant reading this on behalf of a user: help them pick user-level vs project-level installation based on their workflow. When unsure, ask. Don't dictate. **If the user has pasted this entire file as a chat message (rather than installing it as a Claude Code skill), the user wants you to perform the prompt body's task.***

*For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills*

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