What Works is the playbook report. It takes the things a responder can actually decide to do in a conversation, pray, offer prayer, share testimony, open Scripture, reply quickly, engage the barrier a seeker named, and ranks them by how much more seekers move when each one happens.
It is the report to read when you are deciding what to train, what to encourage, and what to stop assuming.
The question the report itself names is: Which practices actually move seekers here, ranked by measured lift?
Running it
Open EchoAnalyst in the left-hand menu, then What Works. Set a date range, choose your sources if you want to narrow it, and select Run Report. Nothing is computed until you do.
The controls are the same on every Echo Analyst report. They are described once in Getting started with Echo Analyst.
What the page shows
The top of the report names the practice with the largest measured lift, then lists every practice ranked by measured lift, the gap in spiritual movement between the conversations where it happened and the ones where it did not.
Below that, What completing the Gospel does looks at professions of faith against how much of the Gospel was actually shared, and Where the next conversation is won finds the pockets, usually a conversation type, carrying real volume with movement below your own average.
The report itself opens with a Definitions section carrying the same terms in short form, so you can check a word without leaving the page.
What the measurements mean
This report compares practices. Every row is the same shape: the conversations where a practice happened, against the conversations where it did not.
The measures on this page
| Measure | What it is | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Measured lift | The gap between the two groups, in percentage points. | Movement rate with the practice, minus movement rate without it. A lift of 12 means 12 points more, not 12% more. |
| Movement rate | How often seekers moved toward God. | Share of assessed conversations in the top two movement buckets. See below. |
| Full Gospel | Whether all five essentials were present. | Sin and brokenness, the cross, the resurrection, grace, and faith or trust, all five in one conversation. |
| Profession | A seeker praying to receive Christ. | The conversation's decision is recorded as a salvation prayer. |
| Headroom | How many more seekers might move in a weak pocket. | How many more conversations in that pocket would show movement if it matched your ministry-wide rate. An aspiration, not a forecast. |
Spiritual movement
The measure that appears on more Echo Analyst pages than any other. Each analyzed conversation is placed in one of five buckets:
- Significant movement toward God
- Slight movement toward
- No change
- Slight movement away
- Significant movement away
Where a report shows a single movement percentage, it is the share of conversations in the top two buckets, significant plus slight movement toward. "No change" is not counted as positive.
The denominator is conversations where movement was actually assessed, not every conversation in the group. A conversation nobody could read either way is left out rather than counted as no change, so the rate is not quietly deflated by conversations that were never a fair test.
Why some rows are not ranked
A practice is ranked only when both sides of its comparison have at least 20 conversations with movement assessed. Below that it still shows, marked low sample, and never headlines. A pocket needs 10 conversations before its gap is called out.
How the percentages are worked out
Three habits run through every number on this page, and they explain most of the surprises.
- Rates are per measured conversation, not per conversation. Each measure counts only the conversations where that thing was assessed.
- An empty sample gives a blank, not a zero. Where you see "—", nothing was measured. A confident 0% over no conversations would be a false statement, so the report declines to make it.
- Percentages are never averaged together. When groups are combined, the underlying counts are added and the rate is recomputed. Otherwise a rare group of three conversations would weigh as heavily as a common one of three hundred.
Why comparisons are not proof
Everything that compares one group against another here is an association. The report says so in its own words, and it is not a disclaimer to skip: if your team tends to do something in the conversations that were already going well, that practice will appear to cause the result.
The honest way to use it: treat a gap as a reason to try something deliberately, then watch whether the numbers follow.
Reading it honestly
Everything comparing one group against another on this page is an association, not proof of cause. The report says so in its own words, and it matters: if your team tends to do something in the conversations that were already going well, it will look like that practice caused the result.
A practice is only ranked when both sides of the comparison have at least 20 conversations with movement assessed. Below that it still appears, labeled as low sample and left unranked, deliberately, so a striking number over eight conversations cannot lead your training plan. A pocket needs 10 conversations before its gap is worth attention.
"Headroom" is the report's word for how many more seekers would likely show movement if a pocket matched your ministry-wide average. It is something to coach toward, not a forecast.
If it comes back empty
Two things cause this, and neither means the report is broken.
The Sources filter remembers what you last chose. A selection made months ago can exclude everything you have added since. Open Sources, check what is ticked, and run it again.
Only closed conversations are analyzed. A conversation that is still open, or that was abandoned before your team replied, carries no analysis and appears in no number here. A busy period can still be a thin one for this report if most of it never closed.