Cc internal brief writer

Internal Brief Writer

Creates internal-only account documentation -- escalation briefs, leadership summaries, cross-functional context documents, and manager review materials. Distinct from bi-account-brief (which is a data snapshot); this skill produces narrative documents with framing and recommendation placeholders. Part of the Communication & Content Production pillar.

This is a content generation skill for internal audiences. It assembles data and structures narrative. The CSM reviews and adds the judgment layer -- the "so what" and "what I recommend" that transforms data into action.

When to Run

• Triggered: By ic-escalation-router when an escalation is initiated (escalation brief)
• On-demand: When a CSM needs an internal document for a specific purpose
• Scheduled: Before manager 1:1s or leadership reviews (if configured)

Core Execution Logic

Step 1: Identify Document Type and Audience

Determine from the trigger or request:

Document Type	Audience	Detail Level	Length
Escalation brief	Engineering, Product, Support leadership	High -- full technical and business context	1-2 pages
Leadership summary	VP CS, CRO, CFO	Low -- headline metrics, risk, recommendation	5-8 lines
Cross-functional context	Product, Sales, Engineering teams	Medium -- relevant history tailored to what this team needs	Half page
Manager review	CSM's direct manager	High -- includes CSM's assessment, asks, and development needs	1 page
Board-level summary	Executives, board members	Very low -- 3-4 sentences with the one number and one insight that matters	3-4 sentences

Step 2: Pull Data Filtered by Audience

From bi-account-brief and other skills, select only what the audience needs:

Audience	Include	Exclude
Engineering/Product	Usage data, support history, product context, technical details, feature requests	Revenue data, commercial strategy, relationship assessment
CRO/CFO	ARR, renewal status, NRR impact, financial context, risk classification	Technical details, support ticket IDs, individual feature issues
CS Leadership	Health trajectory, risk assessment, intervention plan, resource needs	Detailed technical context, individual ticket status
Product Management	Adoption data, feature feedback, usage patterns, competitive context	Revenue details, relationship dynamics
CSM Manager	Portfolio health, specific account deep-dives, CSM performance metrics, development discussion	Board-level financials, cross-functional details

Step 3: Structure by Document Type

Escalation Brief structure:

Section	Content	Source
Headline	One line: what is happening, to which customer, what is at stake	CSM input + CRM
Account context	ARR, health, renewal date, strategic importance	bi-account-brief
Issue timeline	Chronological reconstruction from first occurrence to now	Support platform + CSM input
Customer impact	How the issue affects the customer's business (specific, quantified where possible)	CSM assessment + usage data
Resolution attempts	Every prior attempt with outcome -- prevents the receiving team from re-trying failed approaches	Support platform + CSM input
Specific ask	Not "please help" but "we need [specific action] by [specific date]"	CSM input
Customer communication status	What the customer knows, what they expect, their current sentiment	CSM input
Commercial context	ARR at risk, renewal proximity, escalation's potential revenue impact	CRM + lo-renewal-manager

Leadership Summary structure:

Section	Content	Length
Status line	Account name, health classification, one-word trajectory	1 line
Key numbers	ARR, health score, renewal date, days to renewal	1 line
Primary item	The single most important risk or opportunity	2-3 sentences
Recommended action	What leadership should do (if anything)	1 sentence

Cross-Functional Context structure:

Section	Content
Account overview	Tailored to the audience (technical context for engineering, business context for sales)
Relevant history	Only the history this team needs -- not the full account narrative
Current situation	What is happening now and why this team is involved
Specific ask	What you need from them, by when
Success criteria	How we will know the ask is met

Step 4: Generate CSM Input Placeholders

Mark sections that require CSM judgment with clear placeholders:

Placeholder Type	What the CSM Adds
"So what" framing	What does this data mean for this account? The data shows declining health -- the CSM explains why and what it means for the relationship
Recommended action	What should we do? The brief presents the situation; the CSM proposes the response
Sensitivity notes	What should or should not be shared with this audience. Some data is too sensitive for certain internal teams
Political context	Which internal teams are receptive, which will resist. This context is invisible to data but essential for the brief's effectiveness
Urgency calibration	The data shows severity (health score, ARR at risk); the CSM knows the true urgency based on relationship context

Step 5: Quality Gates

Before delivering the brief:

• Is the headline instantly clear? A reader should understand the situation in 5 seconds
• Is the "specific ask" genuinely specific? "Please help" fails. "We need engineering to investigate the API latency affecting this account and provide a fix or timeline by March 14" succeeds
• Is the document length appropriate for the audience? Leadership gets 5-8 lines. Escalation teams get 1-2 pages. Mismatching length to audience wastes their time or leaves them without context
• Are all data points current? Stale data in an escalation brief undermines credibility
• Is anything included that should not be shared with this audience?

Output Format

{
  "document_id": "brief-2026-0089",
  "account_id": "string",
  "document_type": "escalation_brief",
  "audience": "Engineering -- Platform Team",
  "urgency": "high",
  "content": {
    "headline": "API latency issue affecting Acme Corp -- P1 open 12 days, EUR 85k ARR, renewal in 67 days",
    "account_context": { "arr": 85000, "health": 58, "trend": "declining", "renewal_days": 67 },
    "timeline": [
      { "date": "2026-02-26", "event": "Customer reported API latency >3s on dashboard queries" },
      { "date": "2026-02-27", "event": "Support ticket #4521 opened, P2. Initial investigation: no server-side issue found" },
      { "date": "2026-03-01", "event": "Escalated to P1 after customer confirmed issue affects 15 users" },
      { "date": "2026-03-05", "event": "Engineering identified potential database query optimisation. Fix estimated 3-5 days" },
      { "date": "2026-03-10", "event": "Fix not yet deployed. Customer increasingly frustrated" }
    ],
    "customer_impact": "Analytics team cannot run reports reliably. Estimated 4 hours per week in manual workarounds. Customer has raised this in 3 separate interactions",
    "resolution_attempts": [
      { "attempt": "Server-side cache flush (Feb 27)", "outcome": "No improvement" },
      { "attempt": "Customer-side browser cache clear (Feb 28)", "outcome": "Temporary improvement, issue returned" },
      { "attempt": "Database query review (Mar 5)", "outcome": "Root cause identified. Fix in development" }
    ],
    "specific_ask": "Deploy the database query optimisation fix and confirm performance returns to <500ms for dashboard queries. Needed by March 14",
    "customer_comms_status": "Customer knows engineering has identified the root cause. They expect resolution this week. Sentiment is frustrated but patient -- patience will not extend past Friday",
    "commercial_context": "EUR 85k ARR, renewal in 67 days. This issue is the primary risk factor for the renewal"
  },
  "csm_input_required": [
    "Recommended approach if the fix cannot be deployed by March 14",
    "Whether to involve executive sponsor given renewal proximity"
  ],
  "data_freshness": "all_current",
  "generated": "2026-03-10T14:00:00Z"
}

Handoff to Human

Decision Point	Context Provided	What the Human Decides
"So what" framing	Data assembled, trends identified	What the data means and what action it implies. The brief is evidence; the CSM is the advocate
Sensitivity filtering	Full data package for the audience	What to include, what to hold back. Some data should not be shared with specific internal teams
Urgency calibration	Severity metrics (health, ARR, timeline)	Whether the data-driven severity matches the relationship reality. A moderate-severity data signal on a strategic account may warrant urgent treatment
Political awareness	Audience identification	How to position the brief. Knowing that the engineering team is under resource pressure changes how you frame a request vs. when they have capacity
Recommendation	Situation summary, options space	What to recommend. The brief presents the problem; the CSM proposes the solution

Confidence and Limitations

• High confidence for data assembly and formatting -- pulling from defined sources with structured templates is deterministic
• High confidence for timeline construction from support ticket data -- chronological event compilation
• Medium confidence for audience-appropriate detail level -- the default templates are sensible but the CSM may want different emphasis based on the specific audience member's preferences or the meeting's agenda
• Low confidence for the narrative layer. The brief assembles facts; the "so what" requires human judgment. A brief that presents data without interpretation is a report, not a brief. The CSM's additions transform it from data into a persuasive document
• Cannot assess internal political dynamics -- which teams are receptive, which will resist, who has capacity, who needs to be handled carefully. These dynamics shape how the brief should be framed
• Cannot determine the right level of detail for a specific reader. Some VPs want 3 sentences; others want 3 pages. The CSM knows their audience

Dependencies

Required:

• bi-account-brief (data foundation for all brief types)
• CRM API (account and contact data)

Strongly recommended:

• Support platform (for escalation timeline data)
• All Book Intelligence skills (for health, risk, and usage context)
• lo-sla-monitor (for commitment and SLA data in escalation briefs)
• lo-renewal-manager (for renewal context in commercial briefs)

Downstream consumers:

• ic-escalation-router (escalation briefs as routing attachments)
• ic-cross-func-prep (account briefs as meeting materials)
• CS leadership (leadership summaries for decision-making)
• Cross-functional teams (context briefs for escalation resolution)

References

• references/brief-templates.md -- Template structures for each document type with section definitions