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Productivity & Ops

Stakeholder Update Generator

Write executive stakeholder updates using the SCQA (Situation-Complication-Question-Answer) framework.

# Drop into ~/.claude/skills/stakeholder-update/
curl -L https://github.com/sunnyyang-hicks/pm-skills-for-claude/raw/main/stakeholder-update/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/stakeholder-update/SKILL.md

Overview

Stakeholder updates exist to maintain trust and surface decisions. They're not activity logs — nobody cares how many meetings you had. They're trust-building documents that answer: "Is this on track, and do you need anything from me?"

Before You Start

Ask the user:

  1. Who's the audience? — Exec, cross-functional peers, board, engineering, customers.
  2. Cadence — Weekly, biweekly, monthly, ad hoc.
  3. What happened? — Progress, blockers, decisions made, metrics changes.
  4. What do you need? — Decisions, resources, air cover, nothing (just informing).
  5. Tone — Routine update vs. escalation vs. celebration.

Update Templates

Executive Update (SCQA Framework)

# [Project/Product] Update — [Date]

**Overall status:** 🟢 On Track / 🟡 At Risk / 🔴 Off Track

## Situation
[1-2 sentences: Where we are. Factual, no spin.]

## Complication
[1-2 sentences: What's changed, what's challenging, what's new.
If nothing: "No new complications since last update."]

## Question
[The key question this update raises — or "No decision needed this cycle."]

## Answer / Recommendation
[If there's a question: your recommended path forward.
If no question: key progress and next milestones.]

---

## Metrics Snapshot
| Metric | Last Period | This Period | Trend | Target |
|--------|-----------|------------|-------|--------|
| [metric] | [value] | [value] | ↑↓→ | [target] |

## Key Accomplishments
- [Achievement and its impact — not activity, impact]
- [Achievement]

## Risks & Blockers
| Risk/Blocker | Impact | Mitigation | Help Needed? |
|-------------|--------|------------|-------------|
| [issue] | [impact] | [plan] | [yes/no — what] |

## Next Period Focus
1. [Priority 1]
2. [Priority 2]
3. [Priority 3]

## Asks
- [Specific ask from specific person, if any]

Engineering / Cross-Functional Update

# [Project] Engineering Update — [Date]

**Sprint:** [N] | **Velocity:** [points] | **Status:** [On Track / At Risk]

## Shipped This Sprint
- [Feature/fix] — [Impact] — [PR/ticket link]

## In Progress
| Item | Owner | Status | ETA | Blocker? |
|------|-------|--------|-----|----------|
| [item] | [name] | [%] | [date] | [Y/N] |

## Technical Decisions Made
- [Decision] — [Rationale] — [Trade-offs accepted]

## Technical Debt / Risks
- [Issue] — [Severity] — [Plan]

## Next Sprint
- [Planned work]

Writing Rules

  • Lead with status. Green/Yellow/Red in the first line. Don't make readers search for the bottom line.
  • No surprises. If status is changing from green to yellow, explain why BEFORE it goes red. Leaders hate surprises.
  • Be specific about asks. "Need help" is useless. "Need VP of Eng to approve 2 additional engineers for 3 weeks to hit Q2 deadline" is actionable.
  • Own bad news. Don't hide behind passive voice. "Timeline slipped because we underestimated the migration complexity" builds more trust than "Timeline adjustments were required."
  • Keep it scannable. Executives read 50 updates a week. Respect their time.

Save as UPDATE-[project]-[date].md.