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12 minintermediate

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

01

A themed analysis of your exit notes in under 20 minutes

02

Separation of signal from noise (exit interview hygiene is imperfect)

03

A short list of specific retention risks to investigate further

1

Prepare the notes before pasting

Remove names and identifying details before sharing with Claude. Anonymize to role level and tenure bracket.

  1. Replace names with role and level: "Sarah, Senior Designer, 2 years" becomes "Senior Designer, 2 years"
  2. Remove names of specific managers or colleagues — keep the theme, not the person ("felt micromanaged" not "felt micromanaged by John")
  3. Group notes by time period if you have more than 10 (e.g. H1 2025, H2 2025) so patterns over time are visible
2

Use the analysis prompt

Paste your anonymized notes and ask Claude to structure the analysis.

Prompt
Below are anonymized exit interview notes from employees who left between . Roles range from . 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)

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

3

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.

Prompt
Turn the analysis above into a one-page brief for . 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.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

What's next?

Start over: Write a job description

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