Creating Meeting Materials

Ch.1: OPQ analysis

A proposal isn't "what you want to say" — it's "something that answers the other party's question (Q)." OPQ analysis first nails down three points: O (Objective: the state the other party wants to achieve), P (Problem: the current state blocking it), and Q (Question: the question that arises there). The A (Answer) to Q is the proposal's main message.

• ─O — the state the other party wants to achieve (the mid-term plan KPI / the director's half-year goal / the field's improvement target)
• ─P — the current state blocking it (expressed in numbers / the operational bottleneck)
• ─Q — the question that arises there ("How can we achieve it?" / "Where do we start?")
• ─A — the answer to Q (the proposal's main message / placed at the start of the body)

Ch.1: Pyramid structure and So What? / Why So?

Put the main message at the apex and line up three supporting grounds beneath it (the answers to So What?). Travel back and forth in both directions — bottom-up So What? (what the facts let you say) and top-down Why So? (why you can say that) — to make the logic hold.

Ch.1: One slide, one message, conclusion first

Cram two or more messages onto one slide and the reader gets lost. The title states "the main message itself" outright ("About XX" is forbidden). Land conclusion-first into the slide structure with the template: a 1–2 line summary at the top → three grounds → the next action.

Ch.2: The trap of progress-report meetings

A meeting that just lines up progress and asks "so, what do you think?" is half-hearted. No points emerge, and the other party doesn't know what to decide either. The high-value meeting is the "meeting that surfaces points." A meeting without points designed in advance is a waste of time.

Ch.2: The order for aligning the other party's mind

With any material, start from the whole picture and then descend to today's branches. Always present, in this order, project goal → issue tree → logic tree → today's points, and you can enter the main discussion after the other party's mind has aligned.

Ch.2: The required format for materials (4 blocks)

On the opening one-pager of meeting materials, line up the following four blocks. Drop ① and ② and you fall back into the progress-report-meeting trap; drop ④ and "so, who does what again?" arises the next day.

• ─① Review of last time (what was decided / progress on homework)
• ─② This meeting's goal (what to decide and leave with)
• ─③ The main discussion (points, options, decision material)
• ─④ Next actions (with owner and deadline)

Ch.2: Show "where we are now" with WBS / Gantt

Before entering the main-discussion pages, visualize the whole project's progress with a WBS / Gantt / milestones, color-coding delayed / on track / ahead with supporting numbers. Meeting participants' interest gathers on "where are we now within the whole?", so showing it first lets them focus on the points.

Ch.1 × Ch.2: The shared core is "the other party's perspective"

OPQ, the pyramid structure, the 4 blocks, the WBS — all share the core of "starting from the other party's interest." Skewer the technique of writing as an individual (Ch.1) and the technique used in meetings (Ch.2) on the single axis of the other party's perspective, and the judgment axis settles before you even memorize the techniques.