Status Update

status-update

Anchor: Output is what you did; outcomes are what changed. A status update reports outcomes.

When to use

Use this skill when the user needs to write or restructure a recurring update about work in progress for a team, a manager, or a cross-functional group. Works for:

• A weekly update reporting what moved this period.
• An end-of-cycle wrap closing out a sprint, milestone, or planning cycle.
• A standing update that has drifted into a task log and needs to refocus on outcomes.

Do not use when:

• The audience is an executive who needs a decision framed in one page. Use exec-brief instead.
• The audience is external partners, investors, or customers. Use stakeholder-update.
• The work is a retrospective on a failure or incident. Use post-mortem for that kind of analysis.

Philosophy

A status update is a ritual, and rituals are cheap to start and expensive to keep honest. The default failure mode is a list of activity that nobody reads twice. The fix is to report consequence.

Two concepts from the handbook apply directly. Output vs outcomes: write what changed in user behavior, system state, or the bet you are running, not the list of tasks the team touched. A closed ticket is output. A funnel that moved is an outcome. Rituals serve results: the update exists to keep a team or a stakeholder oriented toward the goal, not to prove the team was busy. If a section does not change a reader's understanding or a decision, cut it.

Voice rules (apply to all outputs)

• No buzzwords: leverage, empower, synergy, resonate, tapestry, delve, elevate, captivate, explore, dynamic, testament.
• No em dashes.
• No filler openings.
• Decision-oriented over descriptive.
• High-context, no overexplaining.
• Standard sentence case for formal outputs.
• ES outputs match the register of the handbook: direct, self-aware, no reverence for process, comfortable naming failure.
• EN outputs use direct US business register. Do not soften bluntness into corporate-speak.
• Language switches based on audience, not author.

Bilingual handling

• ES. Rioplatense register. Vos over tú. Keep technical terms in English where that is standard in industry use: sprint, backlog, KPI, rollout, stakeholder, feature flag, AB test. Do not translate those to Spanish equivalents that no one uses in meetings.
• EN. Direct US business register. Short sentences. No British spelling unless the target audience is UK or AU.
• Choose the language of the audience that will read the update, not the language the user types in. Ask once if ambiguous.

Method

1. State the one outcome that moved this period. Open with the single change that mattered most. Not a list. One sentence about what is different now that was not different before.
2. Show progress against the bet or goal, not a task list. Frame work as motion toward the goal you committed to. A reader should learn whether the bet is on track, not what the team did Monday through Friday.
3. Name what is blocked and the decision needed, with an owner. Every blocker gets a named decision and a named person who can unblock it. A blocker without an owner is a complaint.
4. Report what changed in the plan and why. If scope, sequence, or timeline moved, say so and give the reason. Silent plan drift is how trust erodes.
5. Name next period's single most important bet. One thing. The work that, if it slips, the period failed. Not a backlog dump.
6. Cut anything that is activity without consequence. Read the draft and delete every line that reports motion but no change. If a sentence would not alter a reader's decision or understanding, it does not belong.

Templates

• templates/en/weekly-update.md: a single period update.
• templates/en/cycle-update.md: an end-of-cycle wrap.
• templates/es/weekly-update.md: un update de un solo periodo.
• templates/es/cycle-update.md: el cierre de un ciclo.

Related skills

• exec-brief: use it when the audience is an executive who needs a decision in one page, not a recurring team update.
• stakeholder-update: use it when the audience is external partners, investors, or customers rather than the internal team.
• roadmap-from-data: cross-reference it when the update needs to tie progress back to a data-driven roadmap.
• post-mortem: use it when the work is a retrospective on a failure or incident rather than a forward-looking update.

Anti-patterns

This skill must never produce:

• An update that opens with a list of completed tasks instead of the outcome that moved.
• An update that reports activity with no statement of what changed.
• A blocker with no named owner and no decision attached.
• A plan change buried or omitted instead of stated with its reason.
• A next-period section that dumps the whole backlog instead of naming one bet.
• An update padded with status colors or percentages that carry no meaning.
• An update written to prove the team was busy rather than to orient the reader.
• An update that mixes English and Spanish inconsistently within a single section.
• An update that cites "good progress" without naming the outcome that proves it.

Checklist before delivery

• The update opens with the one outcome that moved this period.
• Progress is framed against the bet or goal, not as a task list.
• Every blocker has a named decision and a named owner.
• Plan changes are stated with their reason.
• Next period names a single most important bet, not a backlog.
• Every remaining line reports a change, not just activity.
• No buzzwords from the voice rules appear anywhere.
• The update reads cleanly to someone who missed the prior period.