Write a Status Update

The scenario

It's Friday afternoon. Your VP wants a status update for the leadership meeting on Monday. You've got the information in your head, but writing it up in a clear, structured format always takes longer than it should.

Instead of spending 45 minutes formatting a status update, you'll have one ready in 5 minutes.

Example output

Executive Status Update: Q1 Sprint 3

Status: 🟡 At Risk

Context: Two workstreams in flight — mobile checkout redesign (on track) and enterprise onboarding pilot (behind due to design resources).

Key Wins

  • Checkout A/B test: 34% reduction in cart abandonment
  • Enterprise pilot NPS: 72 (target was 50)
  • Closed 3 new enterprise accounts in pilot program

Risks

  • Design bandwidth: dark mode deferred to Sprint 5 (was Sprint 4)
  • Legal review for payment vendor is 5 days overdue — blocking checkout launch

Help Needed

  • Escalation: Can we expedite the legal review? Contact: Jamie in Legal
  • Decision: Approve $5k for external usability testing vendor

Next Week

  • Ship checkout redesign to 50% of users
  • Enterprise: onboard 3 remaining pilot accounts
  • Kick off usability vendor selection

How to create this in 5 minutes

Step 1. Make sure your Product Management OS folder (second-pm-os) is open in Claude.

Step 2. In the chat panel, type:

/executive-update-generator

Step 3. Claude asks you a few questions. Answer in plain English — rough notes are fine:

  • What projects are you working on? → List your active workstreams
  • What's going well? → Wins, milestones hit, metrics that moved
  • What's at risk or blocked? → Delays, dependencies, resource issues
  • What do you need from leadership? → Decisions, budget, escalations

Step 4. Claude generates a structured status update using the SCARF framework (Status, Context, Action, Results, Forward) and saves it to:

stakeholder-updates/outputs/executive-update-generator-[date].md

Your file name may vary slightly — Claude names it based on your input.

If something doesn't look right

Tell Claude what to change. For example:

  • "Make it shorter — my VP only reads the first 3 lines"
  • "Change the overall status to green — the legal thing isn't a real risk yet"
  • "Add a section about Q2 planning"
  • "Make the tone less formal"

You can keep iterating until it's right.

What's next?

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Create a PRD
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Process Meeting Notes