Most analysis assumes a single reader with uniform needs. You write for “the audience” as if everyone requires the same depth, exact detail, and same entry point. The result is a predictable compromise: too shallow for experts, too dense for executives, too detailed for quick scanning, too sparse for implementation. No one gets what they need because you tried to serve everyone identically.
Consider what happens when a strategic analysis reaches different stakeholders. The executive scans for strategic implications and finds herself wading through implementation details. The practitioner wants specifics and encounters only high-level conclusions. The analyst seeks methodology and gets only assertions. Each reader abandons the analysis at different points, frustrated by the mismatch between their needs and your structure. The document fails not because the content is wrong, but because its architecture serves no one well.
Framework Analysis
This is fundamentally an architecture problem, not a content problem. As the Three-Depths Mental Model reveals, different stakeholders don’t need different opinions – they need different depths of the same underlying insight. The executive needs the mechanism in three sentences. The practitioner needs implementation details. The analyst needs methodology and edge cases.
The solution isn’t writing three separate documents (which creates version drift and inconsistency). It’s building layered output that serves multiple depths simultaneously. This connects to the Business Engineer Thinking OS – the discipline of structuring communication for maximum impact across diverse audiences.
Strategic Implications
Organizations that fail to solve this problem experience predictable dysfunction. Executives make decisions without understanding mechanisms. Analysts can’t defend conclusions they receive without evidence. Practitioners improvise execution because they never receive actionable guidance. The same analysis gets rewritten multiple times for different audiences, creating inconsistency and wasted effort.
The fix requires deliberate layering: each layer complete at its intended depth, no compromise, no dilution – just strategic architecture that respects different cognitive entry points.
The Deeper Pattern
The one-size-fits-none problem reflects a fundamental misunderstanding about communication. We assume content matters most, but architecture often matters more. The same insight, structured differently, produces dramatically different outcomes. This is why structural thinking must be the default – not just for analysis itself, but for how analysis is communicated.
Key Takeaway
Stop writing “for everyone” and start writing for specific depths simultaneously. The goal isn’t a document everyone can read – it’s a document where everyone can find exactly what they need at their appropriate level without wading through irrelevant material.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
