Writing Standard — Strategy Docs for Lenders & Underwriters¶
At a Glance
The audience is a bank loan officer and an insurance underwriter. They review dozens of plans a week, read the summary, flip to the financials, and decide whether the rest is worth their time. So: a plain-English one-screen summary is always visible; complexity is available but collapsed. Every entity page answers three questions — can this business repay, will it repay on time, and what happens if something goes wrong.
Who we're writing for¶
- They skim first. If the summary doesn't answer the basics in one screen, nothing else gets read.
- They are risk managers. Repayment capacity, timeliness, and downside scenarios drive everything.
- Plain language wins. Jargon means "you expect the reader to do your work." Technical terms get a short parenthetical gloss on first use.
- Concrete numbers beat adjectives. "8 trucks/month" beats "significant volume."
- Disclosed weaknesses build credibility; hidden ones get found. State the risk with its mitigation.
- Consistency is credibility. A number appears once, in the data layer, and is referenced — never re-typed.
- The 5 Cs are their mental model: Character, Capacity, Capital, Conditions, Collateral — make each easy to find.
Writing rules (every entity page)¶
| # | Rule |
|---|---|
| R1 | Summary first, one screen, plain English — a reader with zero industry knowledge understands what the entity does, how it earns, and how it repays in under 60 seconds |
| R2 | The numbers up top — revenue basis, key volumes, key relationships, specific not adjectival |
| R3 | One idea per sentence at summary level; no nested clauses |
| R4 | First use of any industry term gets a plain-English gloss in parentheses |
| R5 | Risk is a section, not a secret — every page has a visible "Risks & How We Manage Them" block |
| R6 | Numbers live in one place (the financial data layer); QB-data-dirty caveat stays until cleanup is confirmed |
| R7 | Every drill-down earns its place — detail that doesn't help assess risk or repayment goes to an appendix |
| R8 | Present tense, active voice; hype words banned ("massive," "unlimited," "revolutionary") |
| R9 | No acronyms in prose (Brandon, 2026-07-08). Company names are written out in full; the short code may appear once, in the page title parenthetical. Role words also work: "the dealership," "the rebuild shop." Industry abbreviations get spelled out or glossed. |
The toolkit (which Material feature for which job)¶
- Collapsible admonitions are the drill-down mechanism:
???collapsed detail (default for depth) ·???+expanded-by-default (sparingly) ·!!!always-open (summary tier only). - Type vocabulary, site-wide:
!!! abstract "At a Glance"(entity summary) ·!!! success "Strengths"·!!! warning "Risks & How We Manage Them"·??? info "Drill down — …"·??? example(worked walkthroughs) ·!!! quote(third-party validation). - Card grids for the entity index and each page's key-facts panel (4–6 cards).
- Icon vocabulary (don't improvise):
:material-truck:operations ·:material-cash-multiple:revenue ·:material-shield-check:mitigation ·:material-alert:risk ·:material-account-group:customers ·:material-chart-line:growth ·:material-handshake:partnerships ·:material-bank:lending. Max ~1 icon per heading/card — emphasize, don't decorate. - Content tabs only for parallel views of the same thing (By Entity / Consolidated; year tabs).
- Mermaid diagrams for structure at a glance — ≤10 nodes at summary tier; complex versions
inside a
???drill-down. - Tables are for numbers only, small, labeled, sourced from the data layer.
The entity page skeleton¶
Every entity page uses this exact structure (Superior Water Truck Parts and Superior Equipment are the converted references):
# Business Name (TICKER)— the only place the short code appears — plus a page-meta block holding only the Updated date (Owner/Status/Scope rows removed site-wide 2026-07-08)!!! abstract ":material-…: At a Glance"— what it is · how it makes money · stage · how it fits the group- Key-facts card grid — revenue basis · who buys · key edge · where
!!! success "Strengths"!!! warning "Risks & How We Manage Them"— each risk bold → mitigation??? infodrill-downs: Competitive landscape · Business model & unit economics · Operations & systems · (??? example) How a real deal/order works · Financials · entity-specific extras- Sister-entity links footer
Supersession note¶
Adopted 2026-07-08 (Brandon). This replaces the prior consulting-format layout ("Value-Creation
Plan"/"VCP" labels, tier language, the McKinsey-spine section order). All the thinking survives —
it maps 1:1 into the skeleton's drill-downs. Superseded page sources are archived at
archive/superseded-2026-07-08/. Do not maintain both formats: convert, don't duplicate.
The test before any page ships: hand it to someone with zero industry knowledge; if they can't say what the entity does, how it earns, and how it repays after 60 seconds on the summary tier, the summary isn't done.