"Examined project timelines and identified delays." That bullet says nothing. You looked at something. So what?

Recruiters scan resumes in six seconds. "Examined" is filler — it tells them you were present, not that you fixed anything. The verb doesn't commit to a finding, a decision, or an outcome. It's the resume equivalent of "attended meeting."

Below are five detailed rewrites that replace "examined" with verbs that actually carry weight, followed by the full list of 15 synonyms and when to use each.

Five rewrites that actually say something

Weak: Examined sprint velocity across engineering teams
Strong: Audited sprint velocity across 4 engineering teams, surfaced 22% under-delivery in platform squad, rebalanced sprint points to close gap within 2 cycles
Why it works: "Audited" signals a formal review with findings. The rewrite adds the team count, the specific problem (22% under-delivery), and the fix — three things the original hid.

Weak: Examined budget allocations for Q3 marketing spend
Strong: Analyzed Q3 marketing budget allocation across 6 channels, identified $47K in wasted spend on low-converting display ads, reallocated to paid search and lifted MQL volume 19%
Why it works: "Analyzed" commits to drawing a conclusion. The bullet now shows what was wrong, how much was at stake, where the money moved, and what improved. "Examined" gave you none of that.

Weak: Examined vendor contracts to ensure compliance
Strong: Reviewed 14 vendor contracts for SLA compliance, flagged 3 with breached uptime commitments, renegotiated terms and recovered $22K in credits
Why it works: "Reviewed" is sharper than "examined" when paired with a concrete outcome. The number of contracts, the number flagged, and the dollar recovery all prove you did more than look.

Weak: Examined OKR progress during quarterly planning
Strong: Assessed OKR progress for 5 cross-functional teams in Q2 planning, surfaced 2 at-risk initiatives, shifted engineering capacity and kept all OKRs green by quarter-end
Why it works: "Assessed" implies you made a judgment call. The rewrite shows how many teams, how many were at risk, what you did, and the final state — none of which "examined" delivers.

Weak: Examined blockers in JIRA backlog
Strong: Diagnosed 18 JIRA blockers stalling 3 roadmap features, traced root cause to missing API spec, unblocked engineering in 48 hours and shipped features on schedule
Why it works: "Diagnosed" signals you found the cause, not just the symptom. The count (18 blockers, 3 features), the root cause, the timeline, and the outcome all turn a vague bullet into proof of ownership.

The full list — 15 synonyms

Synonym What it implies One-line bullet example
Audited Formal review with findings Audited release process across 3 squads, cut deploy time 31%
Analyzed Drew conclusions from data Analyzed sprint burndown for 6 teams, surfaced velocity drift
Assessed Evaluated options and made a call Assessed build-vs-buy for payment gateway, chose Stripe and saved 4 dev-months
Reviewed Checked against a standard Reviewed 22 PRDs for completeness, flagged 9 missing acceptance criteria
Investigated Dug into a problem Investigated 14-day delay in feature ship, traced to dependency blocker
Evaluated Compared alternatives Evaluated 5 project-management tools, migrated team to Linear and cut admin time 18%
Diagnosed Identified root cause Diagnosed scope-creep pattern across 4 epics, tightened change-request approval
Inspected Close hands-on review Inspected QA test coverage for payment flow, raised coverage from 62% to 89%
Validated Confirmed against criteria Validated 11 roadmap items against OKRs, cut 3 that missed strategic fit
Scrutinized Intense, detailed review Scrutinized vendor SLA terms for 7 contracts, renegotiated 2 and saved $31K annually
Surveyed Broad scan across a domain Surveyed tooling sprawl across 8 teams, consolidated from 12 tools to 6
Probed Asked hard questions to uncover issues Probed stakeholder assumptions in discovery, surfaced misalignment and reset scope
Dissected Broke down into components Dissected failed sprint retro themes, isolated communication gaps and ran alignment workshop
Monitored Tracked over time Monitored cross-team dependency health for 9 squads, flagged 4 chronic late handoffs
Parsed Extracted signal from noise Parsed 200+ JIRA comments on epic blocker, identified 3 actionable items and closed epic

When 'examined' is the right word

If you're describing a lightweight scan where no decision followed, "examined" is honest. For example: "Examined onboarding survey comments to identify themes" works if you handed findings to someone else. If you acted on what you found, use a stronger verb.

In compliance or audit contexts where "examined" is the formal term of art — rare in project management, common in accounting — keep it. Otherwise, swap it.

Why intent-words get screened out

Recruiters flag verbs that describe trying instead of doing. "Examined" sits on the borderline — it's passive observation, not action. Worse are "aimed to improve," "sought to streamline," or "endeavored to align." Those describe intent. Resumes are records of completed work, not goals.

When I screen PM resumes at Sorce, I see "examined" paired with no outcome in about 30% of bullets. It reads like the candidate showed up to a meeting, looked at a dashboard, then moved on. The verb commits to nothing. Replace it with one that does: audited if you found gaps, analyzed if you drew conclusions, diagnosed if you traced a root cause. The synonym forces you to name what you actually did — and that's the signal recruiters need.

If the bullet can't support a stronger verb, the bullet probably shouldn't be on your resume. A good test: if you swap "examined" for "looked at," does the bullet still make sense? If yes, rewrite it. When sending your resume, every verb should pull weight.

40 free swipes a day. Sorce applies, you swipe.

For more: established synonym, evaluated synonym, expanded synonym, explored synonym, gathered synonym