Stage 2 · Lesson 5 of 8
Weekly status that surfaces trouble
A tells readers three things in under a minute. Is the project on track, at risk or off track? Why?
And what do you need from them? Lead with the status and the ask, then give detail for anyone who wants it. Its value is honesty and early warning.
"At risk: the payments team is a week late; we will cut refunds from launch unless they can commit by Friday" lets a act. Use the same format every week, so changes are easy to spot. It pairs naturally with the risk list you just built.
Common trapthe , green outside and red inside, where every week says on track until the week it is suddenly off track.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- BookFreeShape Up
Ryan Singer, Basecamp · Intermediate
Free book on shaping and scoping work so projects actually finish
- BookFreeGoogle Site Reliability Engineering Book
Google · Advanced
The chapters on managing incidents and blameless postmortem culture