Brag Doc Skill
Nobody remembers in December what they shipped in March — so good work goes uncredited at review time.
A brag doc is the fix: a running, dated log of what you did and the impact it had, captured while it's
fresh. This skill turns a pile of "stuff I did" into impact-first entries you can paste straight into a
self-review or promotion-packet.
Required Inputs
Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:
- The win(s) — what you did (rough notes are fine; the skill structures them).
- Impact — the outcome and any metric (before → after, time saved, revenue, users) — even a rough one.
- Scope & role — your specific contribution vs. the team's, and who it affected.
- Date / period and any evidence (PR, doc, dashboard, kudos, ticket link).
Output Format
Brag Doc — [your name], [period]
Entries newest-first, grouped by theme (or quarter). Each entry is impact-first:
[Verb-led headline — the outcome, not the task] · [date]
- What I did: [the specific action and your role in it]
- Impact: [metric / outcome — before → after where possible]
- Scope: [who/what it affected — team, org, customers]
- Evidence: [link]
- Maps to: [the competency / ladder level it demonstrates — e.g. "cross-team influence"]
Example:
Cut onboarding drop-off 18% → 9%, unlocking ~$140k ARR · Mar 2026
- What I did: led the redesign of the 3-step signup flow; wrote the PRD, drove eng + design alignment.
- Impact: activation 41% → 52%; drop-off halved (measured over 6 wks, 20k users).
- Scope: owned end-to-end; affected all new signups.
- Evidence: [PRD] · [dashboard]
- Maps to: drives measurable product outcomes; cross-functional leadership.
End with a "Themes this period" summary — the 3–4 narrative threads your wins ladder up to.
Quality Checks
- Every entry leads with impact/outcome, not the activity
- Metrics include the baseline (before → after), not a bare percentage
- Your specific contribution is distinguished from the team's
- Each entry links real evidence
- Entries are tagged to a competency/ladder level, so the doc feeds a review or promo case directly
Anti-Patterns
- Do not log tasks ("attended planning", "wrote code") — log outcomes ("shipped X, which moved Y")
- Do not wait until review season — capture wins within a week, while the metrics and context are fresh
- Do not inflate or claim team wins as solo — overstated credit is worse than none when a manager checks
- Do not omit the metric because it's imperfect — a rough, labelled estimate beats "improved things"
- Do not bury the evidence — an unlinked claim is one a busy manager can't verify or champion
Based On
Brag-document practice (Julia Evans) and impact-first accomplishment tracking.