Writes a decision-driving one-pager - problem, evidence, impact, and a specific ask compressed into a single page readable in under three minutes. Use when someone asks "turn this into a one-pager", "write a brief for leadership", "I need a one-page pitch for this decision", or is preparing a document a busy reader must act on from one page. Do NOT use for a client-facing sales proposal with pricing and scope - use sales-proposal-writer instead; for condensing an existing long document use executive-summary; for multi-slide narratives use slide-deck-builder.
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---
name: One-Pager Designer
description: Writes a decision-driving one-pager - problem, evidence, impact, and a specific ask compressed into a single page readable in under three minutes. Use when someone asks "turn this into a one-pager", "write a brief for leadership", "I need a one-page pitch for this decision", or is preparing a document a busy reader must act on from one page. Do NOT use for a client-facing sales proposal with pricing and scope - use sales-proposal-writer instead; for condensing an existing long document use executive-summary; for multi-slide narratives use slide-deck-builder.
---
# One-Pager Designer
A one-pager is a commitment device: confining the argument to one page forces the author to know what matters and discard what does not. It is not a short document; it is a complete argument at compression. The costly failure it prevents is the vague ask - a page that makes the reader feel informed but gives them nothing to say yes or no to, which means the meeting happens anyway and the page changed nothing.
A one-pager is not an executive summary. An executive summary condenses a longer document; a one-pager is the whole argument - it stands alone, requires no parent document, and is designed to be forwarded, printed, or shared independently.
## Inputs to collect
1. **The exact decision or action sought** - if the requester cannot state it in one sentence, extract it before writing anything else; the ask determines everything upstream of it.
2. **The reader** - who decides, what they already know, what they care about. Default to "knows the domain, not the details."
3. **The strongest fact or number** grounding the problem. If none exists, say so and label any estimate as an estimate.
4. **Three to five pieces of evidence** - facts or precedents, not assertions.
5. **The deadline or decision window**, if any.
## Operating procedure
Write in this order - ask first, header last - even though the page presents in the reverse. The ask is the load-bearing element; everything else exists to earn it.
1. **Write the ask first.** It must be **specific** (name the exact decision, resource, or approval), **actionable** (something the reader can say yes or no to right now), and **time-bounded** (a deadline or decision window when relevant). "Approve $80K and 1 backend engineer for Q3; decision needed by June 14 to hit the July window" is an ask. "Support this initiative" is a request to feel good about something.
2. **State the problem or opportunity** in two to four sentences, grounded in a specific fact or number - what is broken or what is at stake.