Write an executive summary of a long report
A busy executive reads the first paragraph and decides whether the rest matters — the summary has to earn the rest of their attention.
- Use it for
- Anyone who needs a long report condensed into something a time-pressed executive will actually read.
An executive summary that condenses a report's structure — a shortened version of each section — produces something dense and proportional to the original, which isn't actually what a busy reader needs. A real executive summary leads with the single most important finding and its implication, then supports it, rather than summarizing everything roughly equally.
When not to use this
If the report genuinely has no single dominant finding and multiple equally important threads need to reach the reader, a structured summary of each may serve better than forcing a false single headline.
Did this work?
Someone who reads only the summary knows the key finding and what decision or action it implies, not just a shorter version of the report's outline.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.