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Stakeholder briefing document builder

Builds a tailored one-to-two-page briefing document for a specific government official or policymaker audience — structured with a headline ask, background, the audience's stated priorities and pressures, aligned…

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Purpose

Produce a decision-ready briefing document tailored to a specific policymaker — translating a set of facts or policy positions into the audience's own priorities, jurisdiction, and constraints, framed with a clear ask and pre-loaded objection handling. Eliminates generic "issue papers" that fail to move a specific official on a specific decision.

When to Use

Invoke this skill when the user asks to:

  • Prepare a briefing for a legislator, staffer, regulator, or agency official ahead of a meeting or hearing
  • Turn policy facts or a position into a document tailored to one named audience
  • Build a leave-behind or pre-read for a lobbying or advocacy meeting
  • Frame an ask for a specific official before a vote, markup, or rulemaking comment
  • Adapt one policy position into multiple audience-specific briefings
  • Create talking points and objection responses for a policymaker with known priorities

Inputs Required

Before starting, collect:

  • Target audience: The specific official, staffer, committee, or agency — and their role/title
  • Their priorities: Known policy interests, constituency, committee assignments, or public positions
  • Policy position or ask: What the organization wants this audience to do, support, or oppose
  • Supporting facts: Data points, precedents, studies, or examples to draw from
  • The decision moment: What upcoming vote, hearing, rulemaking, or meeting this supports
  • Organization identity: Who is delivering this briefing and their standing on the issue
  • Sensitivities: Any opposing arguments, political risks, or facts to handle carefully

If the audience's specific priorities are unknown, infer from their role/jurisdiction and flag the inferences explicitly for the user to verify.

Instructions

Step 1: Profile the Audience

Establish what this specific official cares about and what constrains them:

  • Jurisdiction & authority: What can this person actually do on the issue (vote, sponsor, regulate, influence)?
  • Stated priorities: Their public positions, committee focus, and constituency pressures
  • Likely disposition: Ally, persuadable, neutral, skeptic, or opponent on this issue
  • Frame accordingly: Allies need ammunition and cover; persuadables need reasons and reassurance; skeptics need objection handling and risk mitigation

Set the entire document's angle based on disposition — the same facts are framed differently for a champion than for a skeptic.

Step 2: Write the Headline Ask

Open with a single, specific, actionable request in 1–2 sentences. Not "support our issue" — instead "Co-sponsor SB 412 before the March 8 markup" or "Include a small-business carve-out in the proposed Section 4 rule." The reader must know exactly what is being asked within the first ten seconds.

Step 3: Build the Background Section

3–5 sentences of context the official needs but may not have:

  • What the policy is and its current status
  • Why it is on the agenda now
  • Who else is affected or engaged Keep it neutral in tone and dense with fact — no advocacy language yet.

Step 4: Connect to the Audience's Priorities

The persuasive core. Translate the position into the official's own stated interests:

  • Map each key benefit to a priority the official already holds (their constituency, their committee, their stated goals)
  • Lead with the argument most aligned to their disposition
  • Use the official's own framing language where possible, not the organization's internal jargon

Step 5: Assemble Aligned Talking Points

3–5 crisp, quotable talking points the official (or their staff) could repeat verbatim:

  • Each anchored to a specific supporting fact, figure, or precedent
  • Each phrased for a hearing statement, press quote, or floor remark
  • No stacked qualifiers — each point makes one clean claim

Step 6: Pre-Load Objections and Responses

Anticipate the 3–4 strongest objections this specific audience or their opponents will raise:

  • State each objection fairly, in the strongest form
  • Provide a 1–2 sentence response for each, backed by fact
  • Where an objection is partly valid, acknowledge and reframe rather than deny

Step 7: Close with the Recommended Action and Next Step

Restate the ask, name the deadline or decision point, and specify the single next step (a vote, a signature, a follow-up meeting, a comment submission). Include a named contact for follow-up.

Output Format

  • Structure: Single briefing document with labeled sections and scannable formatting; bullets for talking points and objections, short prose for background and priority connection
  • Length: 500–900 words (one to two pages)
  • Format: Structured document — headline ask in bold at top, sectioned body, clear close
  • Sections: Headline Ask → Background → Why This Matters to You (priority connection) → Key Talking Points → Anticipated Objections & Responses → Recommended Action & Next Step → Contact
  • Tone: Authoritative, respectful, and concise — the register of a senior policy advisor briefing a principal; persuasive without being partisan or overheated

Quality Checklist

Before delivering output, verify:

  • [ ] The headline ask is specific and actionable — names a document, action, or deadline, not a vague "support"
  • [ ] The priority-connection section maps benefits to this audience's stated interests — not generic public-good arguments
  • [ ] 3–5 talking points are present, each anchored to a specific fact or figure
  • [ ] 3–4 objections are stated in their strongest form and each has a fact-backed response
  • [ ] Any inferred audience priorities are flagged for verification, not presented as confirmed fact
  • [ ] The document fits one to two pages (500–900 words) and closes with a named next step and contact

Notes

  • The single biggest failure mode is a briefing written from the organization's perspective rather than the official's — the "Why This Matters to You" section is where the document earns or loses the meeting
  • For a skeptic or opponent, weight the objection-handling section heavily and lead with risk mitigation; for a champion, weight talking points and give them cover to act publicly
  • To adapt one position across multiple audiences, keep Background and supporting facts constant and rebuild Steps 1, 4, and 6 per official — the facts don't change, the framing does
  • Keep advocacy language out of the Background section; a fact-dense, neutral background builds credibility that the persuasive sections then spend

How to use this skill

This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — 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

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