Covert Contact 98: Shaping Intelligence Products for Maximum Impact

Dean Baratta returns to discuss a problem every intelligence team faces: producing analysis that people can actually use. We draw on experience in government and the private sector to look at how analysts can understand their customers, improve their products, and build the trust needed to influence decisions.

Good analysis alone does not guarantee an audience. A detailed paper may satisfy the analyst who wrote it while overwhelming the person who needs to act on it. We discuss matching length, format, timing, and delivery to the customer, while keeping the substance of the assessment independent of what that customer would prefer to hear.

Positive feedback can be misleading too. A report that everyone enjoys reading may still have little practical effect. I describe asking customers how they were using our work and discovering that the data component was doing more useful work than the contextual writing that consumed most of our effort. That experience leads into a discussion of experimentation, direct questions, and the willingness to redesign a product.

Understanding the organization is part of the job. We discuss studying leadership priorities, observing decisions, and comparing what executives say with what they do. Analysts need access to customers and enough time to learn how the organization works. Customers may also need help understanding what intelligence can provide and how to ask for it.

Dean offers practical ways to develop that understanding, including conversations with senior leaders, opportunities for junior analysts to shadow them, and team discussions after important leadership communications. We also consider how to use periods of limited executive interest to strengthen skills and prepare for a change in leadership.

Throughout the conversation, we return to empathy and credibility. Adapting to an organization’s culture helps intelligence teams make themselves useful. It should strengthen their ability to deliver difficult judgments, while preserving analytic integrity and a clear focus on the decisions their work is meant to support.