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Glossary

Answer-first

The seven-part template for a measure page: the answer in one paragraph, the formula in a line, the rows needed, one worked table, the roll-up and identity, four mistakes, three questions answered in full. The order an analyst needs on Monday and the shape an answer engine can quote. A measure that cannot fill all seven is not yet defined.

DefinitionThe seven-part template for a measure page: the answer in one paragraph, the formula in a line, the rows needed, one worked table, the roll-up and identity, four mistakes, three questions answered in full. The order an analyst needs on Monday and the shape an answer engine can quote. A measure that cannot fill all seven is not yet defined.

Both readers

The analyst who computes it and the assistant asked what it is want the same page in the same order.

The test

No worked table, nobody has computed it. No identity, nobody has checked it.

How it is used

Seven parts, in order: the answer in one paragraph, the formula on one line, the rows needed, a worked table, the identity that checks it, where it goes wrong, and questions with short answers. A reader, a search engine or an assistant can stop after any part and still have something complete.

Example

A page on dormancy opens with the definition and the rule in eighty words, gives the threshold formula, lists the two columns needed, works ten accounts, states that dormant plus active plus too few orders equals customers, and then lists four mistakes.

Where it goes wrong

The answer is held back to build interest. Search snippets and assistants quote the opening, so a page that warms up gets quoted saying nothing.