Someone mentioned to me that she was having a tough time providing project updates for a Program Management Office report. Often, updates are either mundane or too detailed. Here are some lessons learned:
- Tell me what I need to know. Not every detail or every nuance, but for this update, what do I need to know…is there a problem? Is everything fine?
- Review your updates in sequence: what did you say the previous months? Are there key milestones which needed to be met? Problems which were referred to in last month’s update? If you line up all your updates, it should read as a coherent chronology of events…not disparate pieces of data.
- If you’re spending more than 20 minutes on it, you’re overthinking it. People will read your update in less than a minute so keep it in perspective.
- Read the update with fresh eyes. Is it clear….especially to someone who isn’t in the details, but is pretty smart? Updates typically get circulated to wider audiences, so be clear and don’t assume.
- Well written updates are a test of editing more than knowledge. Write, then edit…and edit again. Boil it down to the essentials: not one unnecessary word or fact. Only the essence of what’s important.
I had a great English teacher senior year in high school. Whenever we’d ask him how long a paper needed to be, he’d say “As long as a piece of string to tie up the package nicely.” We’d look at him blankly….but 5 page papers and 60 page papers got As. Length didn’t matter to him…only the quality.