On written communication - when and how to use executive summaries
Executive summaries are not just for executives. Here is a when and how to use executive summaries for all types of communication, especially when working remotely.
Note: This is a two part series article written for an audience interested in learning how to track their performance over time, pitch projects to the leadership team, prospective customers while working remotely. Comic Credit: Dilbert By Scott Adams
👋 Hello! This week, let’s take a look at written communication especially given its importance during remote work. Executive Summaries are a great way to build better written communication muscle at work. They are a powerful swiss army knife that apply in multiple situations, but are especially great for communicating remotely where it is important to over communicate without overwhelming. I first learnt about Executive Summaries at Airbnb. I was trying to make a critical resourcing request to our leadership team and was speaking with my mentor about how to move forward. My mentor suggested I write an Executive Summary for the head of the department. “A what?” I was still a relatively junior Product Manager - I didn’t think executive summaries applied to my case. I assumed they were written for and by those in a leadership team.
Executive summaries are powerful tools that can be used to build alignment, share context and even manage your performance review.
Here is a primer on how.
First, the basics - What is an executive summary?
An executive summary is a high level overview of a particular situation which describes the key things the reader needs to know about the work and the request being made of them.
Common assumptions:
Executive summaries are for pitching ideas to company leaders or investors - The format behind an executive summary can be used for multiple scenarios and audience. The summary is just a tool for communicating the most important points and asks in the most succinct fashion.
Factors influencing how we read:
As you start to write these executive summaries, it helps to understand how your audience will read your written communication. Bill Birchard summarizes them well. Here are five things that influence our psychology as readers. Keep these in mind as you build the most impactful version for your audience.
Keep tone positive
Be intentionally positive in your tone since it is especially easy to lose context or misunderstand tone in written format. This is not to say you don’t bring up issues and concerns. The key is to not come across as someone who is constantly complaining. Also consider eliminating sarcasm and humor which can come across the wrong way and can be very culture specific.
Keep it simple
When people say they love complexity, they are usually thinking about flavor not written communication. Bias towards using simple words. Research shows that companies that issue reports which are harder to read end up trading at a 2.5% discount.
Keep it stirring
At work we tend to try to persuade with logic. This is especially true when you are in a written format. However, our brains process emotions a lot faster than logic. Therefore it is essential to include user stories, or focus on the why/impact in your written communication just as much as you focus on facts.
Keep it specific
Concrete details fire up our neurons. When you keep your written communication specific, it helps the reader build a vivid picture in their mind about the situation. This is used particularly well by script writers through a concept called “log lines”. Log lines are 2-3 sentence summary about the script which is enough to describe a movie. For example:
Log line - A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.
Movie - Speed
Keep it short
The human attention span has consistently decreased over the last 15 years. On an average, we are able to focus for just less than 9 seconds. Considering this, keep your summary as short as possible while maintaining the depth of what you have to communicate. If you are writing a one-pager, truly keep the size to one page (Disclaimer: I may or may not have been guilty of reducing margin and font sizes to achieve these goal.)
How to write one:
Situation A: Executive Summary for project updates
Step Zero: Outline - Before you start writing an update, outline what you want to say, why and how often. To do this, ask the following questions and write answers to them in 1-3 bullet points. Don’t judge what you write, just write it down.
What are 1-3 things my audience cares about?
How often should they hear about them?
What are 1-3 things I want to request from my reader?
Step One: Elaborate - Once you have outlined the above, review the outline and elaborate on points so that it is clear what message you want to send and how often.
Step Two: Refine - As a rule of thumb, each update should be less than 5 min read. Use tools like Word To Time to find estimated read time. Revise your update so it falls under the 5 min threshold.
Template for reference as below. Copy it here.
Tip: Leverage executive summaries during performance reviews
The project update executive summaries are also a great way to keep track of your work. When the time comes to write your performance review, you can use highlights over time from our executive summaries in your self review. Your stakeholders/peer reviews can also use it as a reference point for their write up. This also helps influence your stakeholders/peer reviews since their reference point is the story of your work in your own words.
Questions
If you have a specific situation you want to get advice on, please reply to this email. I would love to hear from you! I’ll tackle a few reader questions regularly (and keep your identity anonymous).
👋 Until next time. Stay safe,
Zainab
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