A Quick Start Guide to Writing Intelligence Analysis

A few unofficial tools + templates to help you get started.

Mar 16, 2023

Spoiler alert: for those of us in the corporate intelligence world, there is no official standard for how to craft intelligence analysis. On the one hand, this is great - it allows us to mold analysis into the vehicle that makes the most sense for our teams and customers. On the other hand - without a foundational baseline, it makes it more challenging to figure out where to start.

I’ve crafted two quick start guides to help provide that analytic writing baseline. These are not meant to be comprehensive dives into the art of intelligence analysis. There are reasons why courses about how to compose intelligence last days - or even months. For example: what I provide below doesn’t touch on lots of important stuff like how to describe sourcing and methods, using estimative language, representing collection gaps, using graphics + text boxes, briefing fundamentals, formatting best practices, structured analytic techniques, and the list goes on.

*important disclaimer* These are based solely on my experience in multiple different intelligence roles and shops and are not meant to be “official” guides representing my current or former employers.

Step One: The Intelligence Analysis Pre-Writing Checklist

I remember having something like this stapled to the front of every single assignment I was given in my foundational analytic training course many years ago. And it wasn’t until I was speaking with a mentor recently that I remembered how useful it is for crafting intelligence analysis. It’s a foundational step that can set new and experienced analysts up for success every single time. Here’s my take on the questions analysts should ask themselves before ever putting pen to paper:

Step 2: The Intelligence Analysis Template

Okay, so you’ve got your key questions answered. Now it’s time to write. But what’s the best way to get the information across?

Again - the answer to this will depend on the needs of your audience and your organization.

What I’m offering below is an unofficial template to help guide the structure of your intelligence analysis. It’s a quick way to organize the information so it’s easily digestible for the reader and gets your main points across. You can edit and adjust from there depending on what’s needed.

Remember: this is a quick start template and not meant to be a course on how to write intelligence analysis. But I think it’ll help get the ball rolling!