Case Report Template

What report shape creates confidence without hiding risk?

Use six sections. Each section earns the next one.

Preconditions

The business spec is complete enough to name the reader, decision, and first workflow.
Research has produced company evidence, market signals, and tech/data-flow notes.
The rhetoric layer exists before report copy starts: evidence ledger, argument map, objection map, and confidence case.

Section	Job	Required Proof
Reality	Name the present-day constraint.	Current pain, decision lag, cost, or risk.
Dream	Name the desired future state.	Backcast horizon and what changes for the reader.
Bridge	Name the gap-crossing with confidence.	90-day bet, owner, metric, budget, kill signal.
Evidence	Show why the claim can be trusted.	Sources, dates, confidence tags, contradictions.
Rhetoric	Explain why change now, in this form.	Thesis, objection map, counter-evidence, action logic.
Decision	Make the next action hard to misunderstand.	GO/NO-GO, day-14 prerequisites, first meeting agenda.

Field	Rule
Reader	One role, not a committee.
Decision	Approve, reject, or investigate one action.
First workflow	One named workflow with before/after metric.
90-day proof	Metric, owner, budget, threshold, kill signal.
Confidence	`VERIFIED`, `INFERRED`, `ASSUMPTION`, or `CONTRADICTED`.
Source trail	Every major claim links to its source artifact.
Backcast	24 months, 12 months, 90 days, and day 14.

Each section should answer four questions in order:

If a section cannot answer all four, it belongs in research notes, not the report.

Before presentation, pressure the case through five instruments from Rhetoric:

Instrument	Case Question
Ethos	Why can this source, agent, or adviser be trusted here?
Logos	What exact claim and proof path hold the case together?
Pathos	What felt risk or reward makes action matter now?
Topos	What shared frame lets the reader recognize the case?
Kairos	Why this action, now, in this form?

The case should then meet the Wisdom test: what is the right decision, at the right time, with the right people, under the right proof condition?

End the report with:

Item	Required Shape
Verdict	`GO`, `NO-GO`, or `INVESTIGATE`.
One thing	The first workflow or proof module.
Conditions	What must be true by day 14.
Kill signal	The trigger that stops spend cleanly.
Next action	One verb-led action with owner and date.