Analyze Exit Interview Notes and Find Patterns
Turn a collection of exit interview notes into a structured analysis: the recurring themes, the honest signal vs. the noise, and what the data suggests about retention risk.
The situation
You have exit interview notes from the past 6-12 months and you want to understand what they actually show — not just count "left for money" vs "left for growth."
After this guide you will have a structured analysis identifying the top themes, the split between controllable and uncontrollable attrition, and a short list of specific things worth investigating.
What you walk away with
A themed analysis of your exit notes in under 20 minutes
Separation of signal from noise (exit interview hygiene is imperfect)
A short list of specific retention risks to investigate further
Prepare the notes before pasting
Remove names and identifying details before sharing with Claude. Anonymize to role level and tenure bracket.
- Replace names with role and level: "Sarah, Senior Designer, 2 years" becomes "Senior Designer, 2 years"
- Remove names of specific managers or colleagues — keep the theme, not the person ("felt micromanaged" not "felt micromanaged by John")
- Group notes by time period if you have more than 10 (e.g. H1 2025, H2 2025) so patterns over time are visible
Use the analysis prompt
Paste your anonymized notes and ask Claude to structure the analysis.
Below are anonymized exit interview notes from [number] employees who left [team/company] between [date range]. Roles range from [range, e.g. "junior to senior ICs across engineering and product"].
[paste your notes here]
Analyze these notes and produce:
1. Top 3-5 recurring themes with specific examples from the notes
2. Split between likely-controllable reasons (management, growth, culture) vs. likely-uncontrollable (compensation vs. market, relocation, life change)
3. Any patterns by role level or tenure bracket if visible in the data
4. Two or three specific things worth investigating further based on what the notes suggest
5. One honest caveat about what exit interviews tend to underreport (people don't always say the real reason when they are trying to preserve a reference)Turn the analysis into a brief for leadership
Once you have the analysis, ask Claude to turn it into a one-page brief you can share.
Turn the analysis above into a one-page brief for [e.g. "the leadership team / the CHRO"]. Include: the headline finding (one sentence), the top three themes with supporting evidence, the controllable vs. uncontrollable split, and two or three specific recommendations. Keep it under 400 words. Do not pad with methodology — they want the signal.What's next?
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