How to Write Value Driven Resume Bullets

Working on your resume and want to show your impact? Here are two things to remember: 1. Impact is almost never related to keywords in the *job description.* Impact comes from turning around or resolving a business problem. These business problems rarely show up in job descriptions. 2. To show impact, your *accomplishment* needs to be put in the context of the business problem it solved. That is, impact = "<a problem existed>, so <I did a thing>, and <business benefits resulted>." Your resume must show impact for the hiring manager to bring you in for an interview. For example (based on a story from a client I worked with): * Brattle had long struggled to quantify analyst performance, limiting business success. I developed an accurate algorithm and internal tool that supported analyst decisions, gave managers clear tracking, and became a competitive differentiator - accelerating sales cycles and removing a key barrier to growth. This bullet: • Sets the context of a meaningful problem ("failure to quantify analyst performance") and why it was worth solving. • Shows the business outcome ("decision support" and that it created a competitive differentiator leading to faster sales). • Implies mastery of many key product management skills - discovery, prioritization, working with developers, etc. Review your resume's bullet points. Is it clear what business problem your accomplishments address? Is it clear why the result was meaningful? (I don't mean, "Could someone 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴?" I mean is it explicitly clear, no guessing required?) Are your bullet points showing your impact? Or are they simply saying, in effect, "I did my job." --- (Yes, I know it's long, and it has no metric - but it's still 10x more likely to get my client an interview than his previous bullet point - because it shows his impact. Here's the original: "Developed improvement processes around data quality of risk analytics, resulting in greater confidence in the attribution platform and reducing the team’s manual efforts by ~20 hours per month." Nothing about competitive differentiation or accelerated sales. Nothing about a long-term struggle to come to grips with this analysis. Just a useless metric that may or may not represent a meaningful change.)

“𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞.” A client said this to me after spending 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠 rewriting her résumé, with no results. Here’s the truth: - The internet is filled with conflicting advice. - Bold your keywords. - Don’t use buzzwords. - Add a summary. - Remove the summary. It's noise. What actually works? - 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭. Recruiters don’t want to “guess” what you did. They want proof. Think: “Cut onboarding time by 35% by redesigning training flow,” not “Responsible for onboarding new hires.” - 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞. Tailoring isn’t about stuffing keywords. It’s about mirroring the priorities of the job description with actual results you’ve delivered. - 𝐍𝐨 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟. 𝐍𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫. Every bullet should earn its place. If it doesn’t show how you made money, saved money, or improved performance, cut it. - 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. Use bolding 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 to guide the eye to scope and impact. Avoid walls of text. Bottom line: If your résumé feels like a creative writing project, it’s probably not working. Here’s what to do: - Pick 3 bullets per role that show scale, complexity, and measurable results - Rewrite them using the formula: what you did + how much impact it had + how you did it - Ask yourself: “Would a recruiter reading this understand my value in under 6 seconds?” You don’t need everyone’s opinion. You need clarity, strategy, and a résumé that speaks the language of business.

Most resumes get tossed after 6 seconds. Here's how to make yours stick: “Managed a team.” “Led cross-functional meetings.” “Owned product roadmap.” Cool. But what happened because of that? Here’s how I coach clients to turn basic tasks into standout value statements using the Value Ladder: Step 1️⃣: Start with the task What did you do? Example: “Managed onboarding process.” Step 2️⃣: Add context Who was impacted? What was the environment? “Managed onboarding process for 30+ enterprise clients in a fast-growth SaaS startup.” Step 3️⃣: Add outcome What changed because of you? “Reduced onboarding time.” Step 4️⃣: Tie it to the business Why does this matter to the company reading it? “Contributed to faster time-to-value, driving $1.2M in net new revenue within the first 90 days.” Now you’ve gone from: “Managed onboarding process.” To: “Managed onboarding for 30+ enterprise clients to reduce onboarding time, improving time-to-value by 40% and driving $1.2M in revenue within 90 days.” Same role. Same work. But now it tells a story - one that hiring teams will remember. Your experience isn’t boring. It’s just buried under generic language. Climb the ladder. Show your value. Make every line count.