Writing Project Status Update Emails to Your Manager, Team, or Colleagues

For any successful project irrespective of the organizations size, it is critical for people to be on the same page.

And one of the best ways to ensure that you stay on the same page is sending a project status update email to your manager or team about the progress made, wins, learning, etc.

In this post we will look at some tips, best practices and two sample work status update email templates that you can use to keep your team on track. So let us jump in.

Things to Remember

• Keep your update emails concise and to the point will ensure that your team and your manager will go through most of it. Long emails for the sake of it, are almost never good.
• Be very clear in terms of what you need to convey through the status update and only include that information and discard the items that just add to the noise.
• Be specific, especially in terms of challenges, successes and next steps. This ensures that your team is well aware of the happenings and can plan for the future.
• Keep the tone largely positive since the goal is to not just inform your team about the project but also motivate them to get better and execute more effectively.

Best Practices for Status Update Emails

• Start with a simple and concise subject line that communicates the intent of the email which is a status update. Something as simple as "Status Update Sprint [Number]" is good enough.
• Begin the body of the email with a quick overview of how things went, so as to give your readers a primer on things that worked, things that did not and future plans.
• Add a section in your status update where you track progress from your past updates to your current update thereby motivating them to keep pushing and move forward.
• Status updates are not only about what went right, it is important to have an honest representation about the things that didn't work and how it can be better managed moving forward.
• Commit to sharing information about the next steps and end with a clear call to action. You can also solicit feedback and clarifications to help you improve.

Sample Work Status Update Emails

Sample 1 (To Your Team and Your Manager)

Subject: Status Update Sprint [Number] Week [Number]

Dear Team,

Hope you all are well. An overview of the past week is [Share 2-3 Sentence Paragraph Describing the Highlights].

Based on the week, there are some steps we will need to take in the coming days like [Share Future Steps].

What worked well:

• [List Item 1 that Worked]
• [List Item 2 that Worked]
• [List Item  that Worked]

Challenges:

• [List Challenges 1]
• [List Challenges 2]
• [List Challenges 3]

Next Steps:

• [Next Step 1]
• [Next Step 2]
• [Next Step 3]

And that is all for this week. If you have questions or clarifications, feel free to reach out to me via email.

Thanks for taking the time to go through the update. Have a great weekend ahead!

Regards,

[Your Name]

Sample 2 (To Your Manager)

Dear [Manager's Name],

Hope you are well. This week was [Share 2-3 Sentence Paragraph Describing the Highlights].

Here are more in-depth details on the week.

What worked well:

• [List Item 1 that Worked]
• [List Item 2 that Worked]
• [List Item  that Worked]

Challenges:

• [List Challenges 1]
• [List Challenges 2]
• [List Challenges 3]

Next Steps:

• [Next Step 1]
• [Next Step 2]
• [Next Step 3]

If you have questions or clarifications, feel free to reply back.

Thanks for taking the time.

Best Regards,

[Your Name]

Conclusion

Writing a clear and effective project status update email can feel like a daunting task. But when you understand the best practices shared in this post and make use of the sample email templates, the process of creating an excellent project status email becomes a lot more easier and streamlined.

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