I've been an Engineering Manager for 6 years, at start-ups and big cos. One of the most important lessons I've learned as an EM is a key ingredient to managing well + propelling your growth that most people avoid:

💡Weekly Updates

But you don't write just anything in them.

As an EM, you're managing a lot of people's expectations on top of your team's performance.

Weekly updates are the best way to update leadership, report project changes, and get everyone on the same page.

Why do people tend to avoid them?

More often than not, the update is fine so no one responds. It can feel like overhead to write something weekly that people may or may not read.

BUT if you stop you lose: historical context, ability to course correct quickly, and trust.

Every update should tie back to your goals.

If an update is not directly related to a team, org or company goals, that's a sign that you shouldn't be working on it.

This practice encourages hyper focus on results-oriented work.

Writing more != better updates

In fact, it's the opposite. The people reading these updates (your manager + skip, team, stakeholders) need to understand the update in minutes.

Updates should rarely be more than 1 page long.

Call out blockers early and often. Even when things are bad.

No one wants to tell leadership they're falling behind. But this is the chance to call it out before it has real repercussions + fix things quickly.

Don't ask for help too late, you'll erode leadership trust.

Formatting matters.

Reading a block of text (like an essay) is much harder than a Twitter thread (like this one 😉). Same goes for updates. Organize your updates so it follows the same format every week and include visual queues (like color status blocks).

Include team and morale updates.

Leadership doesn't just care about project statuses. They also care about how your team is doing / feeling. Someone leaving or joining? Upwards feedback that came out of retro? Include it!

Share it with everyone.

Like I mentioned earlier, this update is for leadership, your direct reports, and stakeholders. By sharing it wide every week, you ensure that everyone's on the same page. Drastically reduces the chances of surprises down the line.

If you found this useful, please consider retweeting 🙏

I'm blown away by the support on this thread! For those asking for a good template, here you go (it's free!):

mitraraman.gumroad.com/l/weeklyupdate

You'll get both a PDF and Notion link. Hope it's helpful!