andreworia/pyramid-storyline

Pyramid Storyline

When to use

Use this when you have the analysis but not the story: the findings are solid yet the message rambles, buries the answer, or reads as a list of everything you did. It is the right skill before writing a memo, building a deck, or briefing a leader, whenever the argument must be understood fast by a busy, senior audience that will not wait for a slow build to a conclusion.

What it does

It imposes the Pyramid Principle on your material: a single governing thought at the top, supported by a small set of MECE key lines, each in turn supported by evidence, so the whole argument is answer-first and logically airtight. It frames the setup with SCQA (situation, complication, question, answer) so the audience feels the question before they hear the answer. The output is a story spine you can pour into any format.

Method

1. Pin down the audience and the one decision. Name who this is for and the single decision or action you want from them. The governing thought is always in service of that decision; without it you cannot tell which of your findings matter.

2. Draft the governing thought first. Write the single sentence that is your answer: the one thing the audience must take away if they remember nothing else. It must be a complete, decisive statement (an assertion that recommends), not a topic ("our pricing strategy") and not a hedge. Everything else in the pyramid exists to support this one line.

3. Build the SCQA setup. Frame the opening as: Situation (the stable context everyone accepts), Complication (what changed or what is now at stake), Question (the question the complication forces), and Answer (your governing thought). SCQA makes the audience arrive at the question in their own mind so the answer feels like the resolution they were waiting for.

4. Derive the key line: the supporting arguments. Under the governing thought, lay out the three to five reasons it is true or the steps to make it happen. These are the pillars of the argument and the top level a reader sees after the answer. Fewer, sharper pillars beat a long list.

5. Enforce MECE on the key line. The supporting arguments must be mutually exclusive (no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (nothing important missing). Overlapping pillars read as repetition; gaps read as a hole a skeptic will find. Test the set: does anything belong in two pillars, and is anything the audience will ask about not covered?

6. Choose the logical order of the pillars. Order them deliberately, using one of the standard structures: deductive (a logical chain: because A, and because B, therefore the answer) or grouping (independent reasons, ordered by importance, or by time, or by structure). Pick the order that is easiest for this audience to follow, usually most important first.

7. Support each pillar with grouped evidence. Beneath each supporting argument, marshal the specific evidence, data, and analysis that prove it. Group like with like, and make sure each pillar is genuinely carried by what sits under it. This lower tier is where your analysis finally appears, in service of a point rather than as raw output.

8. Enforce the "so what" at every level. Each box in the pyramid must be an insight, not a data description. "Revenue is flat" is a fact; "growth has stalled because the core segment is saturated" is a governing point. Ladder every finding up to its implication so the reader never has to do the interpretation themselves.

9. Check vertical and horizontal logic. Vertically: does each point actually raise the question that the level below it answers? Horizontally: do the points at each level hold together as a valid deductive or grouped set? Walk the pyramid both ways and repair any link that does not hold.

10. Write the one-line summaries. Reduce each pillar to a single assertive sentence. Read the governing thought plus the pillar sentences aloud on their own: if that alone tells a complete, convincing story in under a minute, the spine works. If it does not, the structure, not the wording, is wrong.

11. Map the spine to the format. Convert the pyramid into the target artifact: the governing thought becomes the headline or opening line, each pillar becomes a section or a slide with an action title, and the evidence becomes the body. The same spine drives a memo, a deck, or a verbal brief.

Inputs

• The audience and the single decision or action you want from them.
• The findings, data, and analysis you have to work with.
• The context the audience already shares (for the situation) and what has changed (for the complication).

Output format

Return, in this order:

• Audience and the one decision the storyline drives.
• SCQA setup: situation, complication, question, and the answer (the governing thought) written out.
• The pyramid: governing thought at top, the three to five MECE supporting arguments as one-line assertions, and the grouped evidence under each.
• Logic check: a note confirming the pillars are MECE and the vertical and horizontal logic hold.
• The 60-second spine: governing thought plus pillar sentences read as a standalone paragraph.
• Format mapping: how the spine maps to the intended memo, deck, or briefing.

Example

Audience: the executive committee; decision: approve exiting a declining product line (illustrative).

SCQA. Situation: the legacy line has been a reliable contributor for years. Complication: its market is shrinking and it now consumes engineering capacity the growth business needs. Question: should we keep investing in it or exit? Answer (governing thought): "We should exit the legacy line within twelve months and redeploy its capacity to the growth segment, because it can no longer earn its cost of capital and its true cost is the growth we are forgoing."

Pillars (MECE): one, the market is in structural decline, not a cyclical dip; two, the line's economics have turned, returns now below the cost of capital; three, its real cost is the capacity it locks away from higher-return growth; four, a staged exit protects customers and captures residual value. Each pillar carries its evidence beneath it.

60-second spine, read alone: exit the legacy line within a year and redeploy the capacity, because the market is structurally declining, the economics no longer clear the cost of capital, the true cost is forgone growth, and a staged exit protects customers. That paragraph alone makes the case. Format mapping: the governing thought becomes the opening slide title, each pillar becomes a section with an action title, and the analysis fills the body.