Entry Writing Guide

How to write high-signal entries that communicate real impact to reviewers.

The goal

An entry should answer three questions in 30 seconds:

1. What changed?
2. Why did it matter to users or the business?
3. What was hard or non-obvious?

Good structure

Use a simple structure:

• Context: What was the situation or problem?
• What Changed: What did you actually do?
• Outcome: What improved as a result?
• Skills Demonstrated: What capabilities did you show?

Example transformation

Before (weak):

Fixed bug in auth service.

After (strong):

Fixed race condition in token refresh that caused 8% of users to be unexpectedly logged out during high-traffic periods. Added deterministic retry logic and fallback session recovery, reducing forced logout rate to <0.5%.

• Context: Users experienced unexpected logouts
• What Changed: Fixed race condition, added retry logic
• Outcome: 8% → <0.5% logout rate
• Skills: Reliability engineering, debugging, user experience

Write for your future self

Six months from now you will not remember the details. Write entries that future-you can use in:

• Performance reviews
• Promotion packets
• New role interviews
• Skill gap analysis

Quick quality check

Before saving an entry, ask:

• Would someone outside my team understand the impact?
• Did I mention any concrete numbers or outcomes?
• Did I capture what made this work non-trivial?
• Would this help me make a case for advancement?

If you answer yes to most, you have a strong entry.