{
  "kind": "tools",
  "canonId": "019dd956-ad87-70bd-90dc-722d02ddcb91",
  "slug": "headline-test",
  "name": "Headline Test",
  "category": "Slide",
  "description": "A three-question editorial test applied to any candidate slide title or headline: does it have a real verb, does it make a defensible claim, and would the reader walk away with the right point if they read only that line?",
  "structure": null,
  "bestFor": null,
  "layer": "slide",
  "agent": "Architect",
  "agents": [
    "Architect"
  ],
  "whenToUse": "On every body slide title, every memo subject, every section header, every dashboard tile and every blog H1 — applied at draft time and again at review. Skip only on divider / agenda / neutral-framing navigation slides where the title is intentionally not summarising.",
  "whyItWorks": "The title is the only line statistically read by every reader (eye-tracking evidence from Nielsen Norman Group); a three-step filter on verb, claim, and memorability forces the analyst to commit to a finding rather than decorate the slide with a folder name, and catches the failure mode pyramid-MECE checks alone miss — clean ladders of invisible labels.",
  "narrativePurpose": "Acts as the cheapest universal quality gate on every line of text whose job is to summarise what comes after it — converting topic-shaped labels into claim-shaped action titles so that a reader scanning only headlines reconstructs the argument.",
  "signalComponentKinds": [
    "title",
    "subtitle",
    "callout"
  ],
  "signalKeywords": [
    "action title",
    "headline",
    "subhead",
    "governing thought",
    "so what",
    "kicker",
    "topic title",
    "punchline",
    "verb in the title",
    "lede"
  ],
  "signalDescriptions": {
    "lede": "Newsroom term for the opening claim; when used in deck context it signals headline-test thinking.",
    "title": "The slot the test is applied to — every slide title is a candidate.",
    "kicker": "Editorial term for the punchline line of a slide or chart; if a kicker is mentioned, the test is being invoked.",
    "callout": "Apex pulled-out box; if the title fails the test, the callout often carries the claim in a hedge.",
    "so what": "Shorthand for the third question — would the reader leave with the actual point? — and a close-cousin canon.",
    "subhead": "Newsroom (NYT/FT) name for the same artefact; the test is sometimes called the subhead test.",
    "headline": "Generic name for the line being tested; appears in editorial commentary and content-marketing prose.",
    "subtitle": "Secondary title line; subject to the same test when it carries the slide's main claim.",
    "punchline": "Zelazny's metaphor for what a chart title should be; signals action-title discipline being applied.",
    "topic title": "The failure mode the test exists to catch — a noun-phrase label rather than a claim-bearing sentence.",
    "action title": "The McKinsey/Zelazny term for a slide title that asserts a finding — the very pattern this test enforces.",
    "governing thought": "Minto's apex-of-pyramid term; the deck's master headline that must pass the test before any other slide.",
    "verb in the title": "Direct invocation of question one — does the title contain a real (non-copula) verb?"
  },
  "antipattern": "Titles whose only verb is a copula (is, has, are), passive constructions hiding the agent, hedging adverbs that dilute the claim (may have somewhat softened), meta-descriptions (this slide shows...), bare numeric facts without a so-what, and topic labels masquerading as titles (Cost dynamics, Strategic implications).",
  "bodyDocId": "ab578e4c-65d7-4fce-a814-10b07ffdb99d",
  "bodyDocSlug": "framework-headline-test",
  "bodyDocTitle": "Headline Test",
  "status": "active",
  "version": 1,
  "sequence": [],
  "arcUsages": [],
  "stats": {
    "matches": 39,
    "docs": 30,
    "slideRanges": 39,
    "avgConfidence": 25.930769,
    "avgPages": null,
    "arcCount": 0,
    "requiredBeats": 0
  },
  "examples": [
    "The difference is ESSENTIAL",
    "Single page lists every action title in the deck (6 trends + 8 implications).",
    "Master Complex Concepts with Ease"
  ],
  "completeness": {
    "score": 100,
    "missing": []
  },
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}