Something I learned this year about writing is that people only want the conclusion.

I definitely didn't learn this in college (I studied env. engineering). It was a shock to learn that people don't want to read about data or about your process to arrive at the conclusion; they only want the takeaway.

Consequently, for honest, analytical people, you have to write the full analysis and then move the conclusion to the front. Then, the analysis becomes supporting material that leads credibility to your conclusions. This thread about Lightning should be a great example of this in action: conclusion, then supporting analysis.