---
name: stakeholder-update-writer
description: "Writes a status update for a specific audience that leads with progress, flags risks honestly, makes clear asks and names the next milestone. Use when a project lead needs to write a status update for executives, customers, peers or the board that leads with status, risks and clear asks. Do not use for meeting minutes or a formal project closure report. Related topics: communication, business."
---

# Stakeholder Update Writer

Writes a status update for a specific audience that leads with progress, flags risks honestly, makes clear asks and names the next milestone.

## When to use

Use this skill when a project lead needs to write a status update for executives, customers, peers or the board that leads with status, risks and clear asks. Do not use it for meeting minutes or a formal project closure report.

## Workflow

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
2. Set the overall status and a one-line reason at the top of the update.
3. Pick the detail level for the audience and report progress as outcomes measured against the last promise.
4. State each risk with likelihood, impact and the action under way, placing bad news near the top.
5. Rewrite every ask as a specific request naming the person, the decision and the deadline.
6. Close with the next milestone, a subject line and a three-line chat summary.

## Inputs

- **Project and period** (free text, e.g. "Checkout rebuild for the last two weeks")
- **Audience** (choose one: Executives, Customers, Cross-team peers, Own team, Board)
- **Progress** (longer free text)
- **Risks and blockers** (longer free text)
- **Decisions or help needed** (longer free text)
- **Next milestone** (free text, e.g. "Name and date")
- **Overall status** (choose one: On track, At risk, Off track)

## Output

A two-minute update with status line, progress, risks, asks and next milestone under short headings, plus a subject line and a three-line summary for chat.

## Prompt template

Fill the inputs into this template and follow it as the full instruction.

### Stakeholder Update Writer

Write a project status update.

- Project and period: {{Project and period}}
- Audience: {{Audience}}
- Progress: {{Progress}}
- Risks and blockers: {{Risks and blockers}}
- Decisions or help needed: {{Decisions or help needed}}
- Next milestone: {{Next milestone}}
- Overall status: {{Overall status}}

Open with the overall status and a one-line reason, because many readers stop there. Choose detail for the audience: executives want outcomes, money, dates and decisions; peers want dependencies and interfaces; customers want what changed for them and what is coming; a team wants the detail and the reasons. Report progress against what was promised last time, in outcomes rather than activity. State each risk plainly with its likelihood, its impact, and what is being done about it, and do not bury bad news in the last paragraph. Turn every ask into a specific request with the person, the decision wanted and the date it is needed by. End with the next milestone and what the reader should expect to see. Keep it short enough to read in two minutes, with headings and bullets, and no jargon the audience would not use. Offer a subject line and a three-line summary version for chat.

## Pitfalls

- Listing activity such as meetings held instead of outcomes, which tells the reader nothing about progress.
- Reporting green when the risk is real, which costs trust when the slip finally appears.
- Making a vague ask such as 'support needed', which no one can act on.