What it does
Developed at McKinsey for written recommendations. Ideas are grouped so that each level summarises the one below, and the whole thing is read top-down. It works because a reader who has the conclusion can evaluate the argument as it arrives, and a reader who does not is merely waiting.
- Reach for it when
- For any report or recommendation, and especially for the ones that build carefully to a conclusion on the last page.
- Where it stops
- It structures a case you have already reached. It is a way of communicating a conclusion, not of finding one, and used too early it hardens a view before the analysis is done.
Barbara Minto, The Pyramid Principle, Pitman, 1973.
Why it sits at Reporting
The machinery that gets numbers from data to a reader: what is produced, in what form, how it reaches people, and whether any of it is actually read.
A model is only useful when you reach for it at the right moment. This one answers a question that arises here — so it is filed here, and nowhere else. These are the working areas it serves:
- What gets reportedInformation-management practice on report rationalisation, and the accretion problem in reporting estates.
- DashboardsWork on information design and visual encoding, and the distinction between exploratory and explanatory presentation.
- DistributionManagement-information practice on push against pull, and on timeliness as the binding constraint for decision support.
- Whether it is readUsage analytics applied to internal tooling, and the sunk-cost dynamic that keeps unused reports alive.
What it touches elsewhere
Nothing in a business is decided on its own. A conclusion reached with this model at Reporting lands in these other cores, whether or not anyone follows it there.
- Business CoreThe financial pack’s content is settled there; this object covers how it and everything else is produced and delivered.
- StakeholdersWhat external stakeholders receive is decided with them; the mechanics of producing it sit here.
- Data GovernanceConsistent definitions are what make self-service reporting safe rather than merely fast.
- Time CoreReporting rhythm has to match the decision rhythm, or the numbers arrive after the decision.
Filed at the same place
These answer questions that arise at Reporting too. Where they disagree with this one, the disagreement is the useful part.
- Tufte’s data–ink ratioMost of the ink in a graphic should be showing data, and the rest is usually in the way.
Elsewhere in Data Core
These are other people’s models, named here so you can go to the source and use them properly. The Omnigoal is not affiliated with their authors and is not endorsed by them; nothing of theirs is reproduced here — no canvas, no diagram, no wording. Each is described in our own words, with the originator credited, because the framework is a place to put thinking, not a replacement for the people who did it. Model names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to refer to the work itself.
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