BW-301g · Module 3

What Separates Good from Great

4 min read

A good deliverable is accurate, complete, and professional. A great deliverable does all of that and one more thing: it anticipates the client's next question and answers it before it is asked. The great deliverable is written by someone who has sat in the client's chair and thought: after reading this, what am I going to want to know? That question shapes what goes into the appendix, what gets elaborated versus compressed, and what the final call to action says. Good deliverables transfer knowledge. Great deliverables remove friction from the client's decision-making process.

Do This

  • Anticipate the three most likely follow-up questions and answer them in the document — either in the body or in a labeled FAQ appendix
  • Make the recommendation section the most specific section in the document — great deliverables are most precise where the stakes are highest
  • Use the executive summary to give the senior reader everything they need and the appendix to give the working team everything they need
  • Edit the final page with extra care — the last page is what the client will remember when they close the document

Avoid This

  • Treat completeness as the goal — a comprehensive deliverable that obscures the key findings behind equal-weight analysis is not great, it is exhausting
  • Write the appendix as an afterthought — the appendix is where the working team will spend most of their time, and it deserves its own curation
  • Leave the client with a question the deliverable should have answered — that question becomes the follow-up conversation that delays action
  • End the document with a summary of what was done rather than a restatement of what the client should do