How to write great status reports

Newspapers use sales and marketing concepts in order to catch people attention and sell their ideas or products. So, if our status reports have – in essence - the same goals, how can we use those concepts in our reporting process?

Status Reports are a powerful tool that needs to be used by successful managers to help achieve the project goals. Most of the times, it’s the only opportunity you have to sell your project, request priority treatment or escalate issues with your CEOs, sponsors, etc.


Sometimes we create status reports only because it’s part of the process and we get a Status Report Template, complete all the black areas as a zombie and get it sent on a regular basis trying to consume the less time possible. This is not only a waste of time and resources; it’s also a waste of project opportunities to be in a better position.

So, we will try to implement techniques that newspapers use to catch people attention and sell what we want.

Elevator Pitch
First at all, “Good things, when short, are twice as good” and this also applies for status reports. The term itself comes from a scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in the elevator and that is the only opportunity we have to talk to that person. If the conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and adds value, desired action will come after the elevator ride or end in a scheduled meeting.
So, we should be able to create status summaries that deliver the information we need in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes.

The 80/20 rule of headlines
Using newspaper metrics 8 of 10 people will read titles or headlines, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire report.

BLUF
Bottom Line Up Front means that we should start our topics by the conclusions. We should not introduce, provide context or say what we are going to do, but tell the reader what we want him to do or know. People should be able to read the entire report just checking first paragraphs.

The inverted pyramid
Following with the previous concept, this model says how the information in our story should be prioritized so we can start from the most important and substantial info and other data should follow in order of diminishing importance. That way, people can read deep in the story till feel satisfied with the detail level.
In the case of a newspaper, the most important information – and the key contents of the Lede – are the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the story.

Finally, think again your status reports to:

1. Identify your goal, Why you are sending the Status Report? What you do want to get?
2. Create a good synthesis of what you want to say that you are able to read in less than 2 min. 
3. Write 1 idea per paragraph and include your conclusion in the first sentence.
4. Provide objective metrics and offer a source to get into details