Synthesis Worksheet

Separate evidence, consequence, cause and recommendation before building the client story.

Use one row per material finding.

Field	Entry
Finding	What is happening?
Evidence	Which interviews/data/observations support it?
Frequency	How common is it?
Consequence	Time, cost, risk, customer or revenue impact
Root-cause hypothesis	Why does it happen?
Confidence	High / Medium / Low
Contradictory evidence	What challenges this view?
Intervention options	Eliminate / simplify / integrate / automate / AI / operating model
Validation needed	What must be checked?
Owner	Who should confirm it?

Synthesis rules

• do not merge symptom and root cause;
• keep assumptions visible;
• treat disagreement as evidence;
• do not use one anecdote as a universal process rule;
• connect recommendations to the validated cause;
• keep technical and operating-model causes separate where both exist.

Final test

Can you explain each recommendation as:

Because we observed X, which causes Y, and evidence suggests Z is the cause, we recommend A.