How to Write a Status Update People Actually Read
A good status update answers one question before any other: are we on track? Here's how to write one a busy manager reads in ten seconds.
6 min read
Why most status updates fail
The default status update is a diary. It walks through what happened Monday, then Tuesday, then where things stand — and the one thing the reader needs, whether the work is on track, arrives last or not at all. By then a busy manager has skimmed past it.
A status update has one job: tell the reader the state of the work and what, if anything, you need from them. Everything else is supporting detail. When you organize around the timeline instead of the state, you make the reader do the work of figuring out whether to worry.
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