Messages to those with little time.
WHAT THEY NEED
The decision or information The implication The risk What you need from them
WHAT THEY DO NOT NEED
How you arrived at it Every option considered Technical detail
WHERE THAT DETAIL GOES
Beneath, or in an attachment.
HOW LONG
A few lines, in most cases.
WHAT TO STATE FIRST
What you need: a decision, an approval, or nothing.
WHY STATING NOTHING MATTERS
If it is information only, say so, and they relax.
WHAT A GOOD OPENING LOOKS LIKE
For your approval: increasing the hosting budget by a stated amount, which reduces the risk of an outage during the busy period.
WHAT TO INCLUDE FOR A DECISION
The options, briefly Your recommendation The consequence of each
WHY YOUR RECOMMENDATION
Presenting options without one transfers your work to them.
WHAT TO QUANTIFY
Cost, time and risk.
WHY
Those are the terms decisions are made in.
WHAT TO AVOID
Hedging so much that no recommendation is discernible Technical vocabulary Presenting problems with no proposal
WHAT TO DO ABOUT BAD NEWS
Lead with it.
WHY
Discovering it in paragraph four is worse.
WHAT TO PREPARE FOR
Questions, which is why the detail exists beneath.
