Here are the key takeaways from "How to send progress updates" by Slava Akhmechet:
- Show stewardship: Every update should reinforce your reliability and care for what you’re entrusted with—delivery, investment, budget, or reputation.
- Vary the cadence: Don’t send updates in a perfectly regular rhythm—slight unpredictability makes them more engaging and anticipated.
- Be headline-driven: Know the main point (“headline”) of your next update as you work, not just when it’s time to write it.
- Start with a TL;DR: Always open with a clear one-sentence summary and a short recap of your overall project goals for busy readers.
Assume your audience is smarter than you are, but is very busy and remembers nothing about your work.
- Engineer pleasant surprises: Deliberately find or create small wins to highlight in your updates.
Within reason, deliberately engineer pleasant surprises so you can include them in your updates.
- Handle bad news thoughtfully: If delivering unpleasant news, inform key people privately first and soften the blow in phases (unless it’s urgent).
- Acknowledge changes: If something has changed since the last update, explicitly call out and explain any inconsistencies.
People perceive acknowledged inconsistencies as cost of doing business, but unacknowledged inconsistencies as broken promises.
- Be respectful: Never insult others, whether intentionally or not—avoid unnecessary or crude statements.
- Convey stability: Write with a calm, steady “pilot voice”—reassure your audience with your tone.
- Focus on the work: Don’t over-sanitize out of fear of personal judgment; write from a third-person perspective to stay objective.
- Anticipate questions: Clearly answer the top three questions your audience will have.
- Include worries and failures: Dedicate a section to being honest about what's not going well, along with your plans, showing conscientiousness without panic.
- Transparent status: The update’s goal is that anyone can understand your project’s status without needing to ask you.
- Keep perspective: If you’re an outlier like Elon Musk, you can break these rules—but otherwise, stick to them.
- Competence is key: These tips assume basic competence; they won’t mask fundamental issues.
These takeaways can help you write effective, respected progress updates that build trust and clarity.