Pyramid Principle Communication
Use $ARGUMENTS as initial context.
When to use this skill
- Executive or leadership communication where the decision matters.
- Recommendation memos that must be scanned quickly.
- Storylines for presentations, updates, or board materials.
- Any unclear draft that needs a single governing question and answer-first structure.
Required inputs
- Audience and decision owner.
- Governing question to answer.
- Available evidence and major constraints.
Workflow
- Define one governing question and one decision objective.
- Draft the answer first as a one-sentence BLUF.
- Build 3-5 MECE support points with parallel phrasing.
- Choose logic mode per level: deductive or inductive, not both.
- Add evidence, implication, and risk for each support point.
- End with a decision, owner, date, and immediate next action.
Ask-first questions
Ask up to 3 questions before drafting:
- What exact decision must this communication drive?
- Who is the final decision owner and what is their risk tolerance?
- Which evidence is confirmed vs still assumed?
Assumption policy
- If answers are incomplete, proceed with explicit assumptions.
- Tag each assumption with confidence: high, medium, low.
- Avoid fabricated data; request verification when confidence is low.
Output contract
Always produce these sections in order:
- Context
- Decision or Recommendation
- Analysis
- Risks
- Next Actions
- Assumptions
Guardrails
- Keep one governing question; reject multi-question drift.
- Do not mix recommendation with exploratory brainstorming in the same top level.
- Use concrete language; avoid vague claims like "optimize" without mechanism.
- Flag missing evidence when conclusions are not fully supported.
Resources
references/pyramid-rules.md- Rule set and anti-ambiguity checks.references/scqa.md- SCQA framing and transitions.templates/structured-storyline.md- Decision-ready output structure.examples/pyramid-example.md- Golden example with partial information.
Keywords
pyramid principle, Minto, BLUF, executive communication, storyline, SCQA, structured recommendation