1 min lesson
The investigation isn't done when you understand the bug
Use "Lead with impact, not narrative" to say what you would do next.
Step 1 of 4
The investigation isn't done when you understand the bug. It's done when an engineer can read your report in under a minute and know exactly what to do next.
This is the part of the job leadership sees and the part that scales your impact. A clean report saves engineers their first hour of re-deriving your work and it's the artifact that earns you trust as the escalation point. Lead with impact, not narrative.
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Advanced table
Reference table
- Section
- Impact & severity
- What goes here
- One line: what breaks, how bad (data loss / security / outage > broken feature > annoyance) and the reach.
- Section
- Repro steps
- What goes here
- Numbered, exact, copy-pasteable. Include the minimal repo or fixture if you built one.
- Section
- Expected vs actual
- What goes here
- Two short lines. The gap is the bug.
- Section
- Environment
- What goes here
- OS, Cursor version, model, plan, relevant extensions, network shape.
- Section
- Evidence
- What goes here
- Logs, HAR, screen recording, stack trace - attached, not described.
- Section
- Hypothesis & ruled-out
- What goes here
- Your best guess at root cause, plus what you eliminated. This is what makes it senior.
- Section
- Frequency & reach
- What goes here
- How many users, which versions, how often. Ties the bug to prioritization.
| Section | What goes here |
|---|---|
| Impact & severity | One line: what breaks, how bad (data loss / security / outage > broken feature > annoyance) and the reach. |
| Repro steps | Numbered, exact, copy-pasteable. Include the minimal repo or fixture if you built one. |
| Expected vs actual | Two short lines. The gap is the bug. |
| Environment | OS, Cursor version, model, plan, relevant extensions, network shape. |
| Evidence | Logs, HAR, screen recording, stack trace - attached, not described. |
| Hypothesis & ruled-out | Your best guess at root cause, plus what you eliminated. This is what makes it senior. |
| Frequency & reach | How many users, which versions, how often. Ties the bug to prioritization. |
Top to bottom is roughly the order an engineer reads in.
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Optional practice