close-the-loop

Skill: Close-the-Loop

Purpose

Ensure every analysis that includes a recommendation ends with a clear follow-up plan — who decides, what metric tracks success, when to check back, and what to do if the expected outcome doesn't materialize.

When to Use

Triggering Test (use this decision tree)

Ask yourself: "Has a specific recommendation or action item been made?"

• YES → Apply Close-the-Loop
• NO → Skip (even if a decision is needed, wait until the recommendation is formulated)

Apply this skill when:

• The analysis concludes with a recommendation ("we should do X")
• Root cause investigation identifies a fix ("deploy the hotfix", "roll back v3.2")
• Opportunity sizing recommends an investment ("invest 2 eng-months to recover $2.1M")
• Multiple options are presented and a decision is needed ("Option A vs B vs C")
• The analysis outputs action items that need tracking

Skip this skill when:

• Pure exploratory analysis with no recommendations ("interesting pattern, still investigating")
• User is asking whether to investigate ("should we look into this?" — this is premature, no recommendation yet)
• Questions about causality ("is this correlation or causation?" — wait until you recommend a course of action)
• Descriptive reports with no proposed actions ("here's what happened last quarter")
• Data quality assessments (unless they recommend fixes)
• Answering factual questions ("what was revenue last month?")

Instructions

The Close-the-Loop Checklist

Append this checklist to the end of every analysis report or presentation that includes a recommendation:

## Close the Loop

### Decision
- **Recommendation:** [What the analysis recommends]
- **Decision maker:** [Who will approve/reject this — name or role]
- **Decision deadline:** [When this needs to be decided by]
- **Decision made:** [ ] Yes / [ ] No / [ ] Deferred
- **Decision outcome:** [What was actually decided — fill in after]

### Success Tracking
- **Success metric:** [What metric will tell us the recommendation worked?]
- **Current baseline:** [What is the metric today?]
- **Target:** [What value do we expect if the recommendation works?]
- **Measurement window:** [How long after implementation before we evaluate?]
- **Data source:** [Where to pull the metric]

### Follow-Up
- **Check-in date:** [When to evaluate whether the recommendation worked]
- **Owner:** [Who is responsible for the follow-up check]
- **If successful:** [What's the next step — scale it, document it, move to next priority]
- **If unsuccessful:** [What's the fallback — investigate further, try alternative, accept the status quo]
- **If inconclusive:** [What additional data or time is needed before deciding]

### Analysis Provenance
- **Analysis date:** [When this analysis was completed]
- **Analyst:** [Who produced it]
- **Key assumptions:** [1-3 assumptions the recommendation depends on]
- **Confidence level:** [HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW]
- **What would change the recommendation:** [Under what conditions should we revisit]