A few years ago, a coworker and I dug deep into a topic we thought would really wow leadership. No one had asked for it, but we believed it was a “blind spot” they needed to know about.

We spent a few weeks conducting internal research, summarizing the external literature, and creating action plans for leaders to reference.

We began presenting the research to various teams and although they seemed interested initially… we heard nothing from them afterward.

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

The research was solid – what happened? Were the insights not worth sharing?

The insight guessing-game

Maybe you’ve been there too. You finish an analysis and end up with a big pile of potential insights. Now what?

• Do you squeeze them all into a deck?

• Do you pick a few that seem interesting?

• Do you ask your manager which insights to share?

It can feel like a guessing game.

But here’s a better way to sort through your findings – a quick framework I use when deciding what actually belongs in front of stakeholders.

The 4 Insight Categories

1. Aligned & Actionable

This is the ideal. We would love it if all our insights fell into this category. In reality, these are really hard to find. They:

• Directly tie to a business goal, KPI, or team priority

• Suggest a clear decision, fix, or next step

• Point to obvious value — time, money, growth, risk, etc.

Example: “Fixing this UX bug could recover $120K/month in lost conversions.”

What to do with it:
Put this front and center. These belong in your summary slide, your readout, your meeting opener. This is what stakeholders came for. (Cue Calvin Harris and Rihanna.)

2. Costly Blind Spot

These are the surprise findings – the ones you stumble upon and then ask a coworker to check your code to make sure they’re real. They:

• Are not a stated priority (yet)

• Reveal a hidden risk, inefficiency, or opportunity

• Might take a bit of storytelling to get attention, but worth it

Example: “One of our most requested features already exists, but it’s buried two clicks deep and labeled in a way users don’t recognize.”

What to do with it:
Share it – these can spark great conversations if delivered right. But frame it carefully. These insights might challenge existing assumptions or unintentionally put someone on the defensive. (Check out this past issue on how to handle challenging assumptions.)

3. Nice to Know

This is where a lot of analysts accidentally spend too much time. These findings feel interesting… but don’t change anything. They are:

• Descriptive, but not decision-driving

• Not clearly tied to value or company goals

• Potentially useful in the future, but not right now

Example: “Mobile users browse more at night.”

What to do with it:
Skip the deck. Instead:

• File it away, it might become relevant down the road

• Use it to support a future analysis, or

• Drop it in a footnote or a quick bullet in a follow-up email

Think of these as little context boosters: useful in the right moment, but not worth spotlighting.

4. Unclear or Incomplete

These ones feel like they could become an insight… but they’re not quite there yet. Unclear or incomplete insights usually:

• Raise a question, but have no clear next step

• May confirm something already known

• Need more digging or context before being share-worthy

Example: “Satisfaction scores dipped this quarter, but we’re not sure why.”

What to do with it:
Don’t present it cold. You risk confusing your audience or losing their trust. Instead:

• Phone a friend. Share it with a friendly stakeholder or teammate and ask: “Is this something you’d want to know more about?”

• Dig deeper. A little more digging might reveal the cause or connect it to impact.

• Hold it for now. Some insights just need the right timing or audience to truly be useful.

Recap: Insight Triage Table

The bottom line

Honestly, it can be tough to hold back an insight you spent days (or even weeks) digging into. But remember:

• Sometimes it’s a “later” insight.

• Sometimes it’s a conversation starter.

• Sometimes… you really did hit the jackpot.

Remember that research I mentioned earlier?

We thought it was a Costly Blind Spot. Leadership thought it was just Nice to Know. So it got shelved.

But a year later, the topic became urgent.

Suddenly, leaders were asking what we knew, but we didn’t have to scramble. We already had insights ready to go. And this time, they were Aligned and Actionable.

Cheers,
Morgan