# Status Updates > >- - **Type:** Skill - **Install:** `agentstack add skill-michaelsvanbeek-personal-agent-skills-status-updates` - **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior - **Seller:** [michaelsvanbeek](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/michaelsvanbeek) - **Installs:** 0 - **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills) - **Latest version:** 0.1.0 - **License:** MIT - **Upstream author:** [michaelsvanbeek](https://github.com/michaelsvanbeek) - **Source:** https://github.com/michaelsvanbeek/personal-agent-skills/tree/main/skills/status-updates ## Install ```sh agentstack add skill-michaelsvanbeek-personal-agent-skills-status-updates ``` Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent. ## About # Status Updates ## When to Use - Writing a weekly status update for your manager or skip-level - Preparing a monthly team summary for stakeholders - Drafting a quarterly review for leadership - Sharing progress with peer teams - Communicating project health to non-technical stakeholders - Creating a standard update format for your team --- ## Core Principles 1. **Lead with outcomes, not activities** — "Reduced onboarding time by 40%" beats "Worked on onboarding improvements" 2. **Audience-appropriate detail** — Executives want headlines and risks. Peers want context. Your team wants specifics. 3. **Signal risks early** — An update that hides problems is worse than no update at all 4. **Consistent cadence** — Same day, same format, every cycle. Predictability builds trust. 5. **Concise** — If your status update takes more than 5 minutes to read, it's too long --- ## Weekly Status Update **Audience**: Your manager, skip-level, peer leads **Cadence**: Every Friday (or Monday morning) **Length**: 10–15 lines max ### Template ```markdown ## Weekly Update — [Team Name] — Week of [Date] ### Highlights - [Outcome or milestone achieved] - [Outcome or milestone achieved] ### In Progress - [Initiative] — [brief status, % complete or sprint target] - [Initiative] — [brief status] ### Risks / Blockers - [Risk] — [impact and mitigation plan] - [Blocker] — [who/what is needed to unblock] ### Asks - [Specific request with context — decision needed, resource needed, escalation] ### Next Week - [What the team will focus on] ``` ### Guidelines - **Highlights**: Max 3 items. These should be things your manager can pass upward. - **Risks**: Never zero. If you can't think of any, you're not looking hard enough. "No risks" signals a lack of awareness, not a perfect sprint. - **Asks**: Be specific. "Need a decision on X by Wednesday" is actionable. "Need help" is not. --- ## Monthly Summary **Audience**: Director/VP level, cross-functional stakeholders **Cadence**: End of each month **Length**: 1 page ### Template ```markdown ## Monthly Summary — [Team Name] — [Month YYYY] ### Key Outcomes 1. [Measurable outcome with business impact] 2. [Measurable outcome with business impact] 3. [Measurable outcome with business impact] ### OKR Progress | Objective | KR | Current | Target | Status | |-----------|-----|---------|--------|--------| | ... | ... | ... | ... | 🟢 On Track / 🟡 At Risk / 🔴 Off Track | ### Metrics | Metric | Last Month | This Month | Trend | |--------|-----------|------------|-------| | Sprint velocity | ... | ... | ↑/↓/→ | | Escaped defects | ... | ... | | | PR cycle time | ... | ... | | ### Risks and Mitigations | Risk | Status | Mitigation | |------|--------|-----------| | ... | New / Active / Resolved | ... | ### Team Health Brief note on team morale, capacity changes, hiring status. ### Next Month Focus Top 2–3 priorities for the upcoming month. ``` --- ## Quarterly Review **Audience**: VP/C-level, org leadership **Cadence**: End of each quarter **Length**: 2–3 pages or a short deck (5–8 slides) ### Template ```markdown ## Q[N] Review — [Team Name] ### TL;DR 3-sentence executive summary: what we achieved, what we missed, what's next. ### Scorecard | Objective | Score | Highlights | |-----------|-------|-----------| | ... | 0.X | ... | Overall: X.XX / 1.0 ### Key Wins - [Win with quantified impact] - [Win with quantified impact] ### Key Misses - [Miss with root cause and lesson learned] ### Delivery Metrics | Metric | Q[N-1] | Q[N] | Trend | |--------|--------|------|-------| | Features shipped | ... | ... | | | Incidents (P1/P2) | ... | ... | | | Velocity (avg) | ... | ... | | ### Risks and Outlook Active risks heading into next quarter. ### Next Quarter Preview Top 3 themes or initiatives for Q[N+1]. ``` --- ## Communicating to Different Audiences ### Upward (Your Manager, VP, Exec) - **Lead with impact**: Business outcomes, metrics, customer impact - **Be concise**: 5 bullets, not 5 paragraphs - **Surface risks**: They want to know what might break, not just what's going well - **Make asks explicit**: Don't hint — state what you need clearly - **Use their language**: Revenue, retention, velocity-to-market — not story points or tech jargon ### Lateral (Peer leads, PMs, adjacent teams) - **Focus on dependencies**: What you need from them, what they need from you - **Share context**: They don't have your team's full picture - **Flag shared risks**: Especially cross-team blockers - **Be transparent about capacity**: If you can't take on their request, say so clearly ### Downward (Your Team) - **Be transparent**: Share company context, org decisions, reasons behind priorities - **Celebrate wins**: Public recognition in team channels - **Be honest about challenges**: Don't sugarcoat — the team knows when things are hard - **Show how their work connects**: "This feature directly supports the company OKR on retention" --- ## Delivery Channel | Update Type | Channel | Format | |-------------|---------|--------| | Weekly | Team chat (channel + manager DM) or email | Text with clear sections | | Monthly | Email + shared wiki page | Longer-form with tables | | Quarterly | Wiki doc + presentation | Document + slides for review meeting | | Ad hoc (incident, launch) | Chat + email | Brief, factual, with next steps | --- ## Anti-Patterns | Anti-Pattern | Problem | Better Approach | |-------------|---------|----------------| | Activity log | "Worked on X" tells nothing about progress | State outcomes: "Shipped X, reducing Y by Z%" | | No risks section | Signals unawareness or avoidance | Always include at least one risk or watch item | | Buried asks | Buries what you need in a wall of text | Surface asks in their own section at the top | | One-size-fits-all | Same update sent to execs and the team | Tailor format and depth by audience | | Inconsistent cadence | Updates come randomly, not on schedule | Pick a day, stick to it every week | ## Source & license This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code. - **Author:** [michaelsvanbeek](https://github.com/michaelsvanbeek) - **Source:** [michaelsvanbeek/personal-agent-skills](https://github.com/michaelsvanbeek/personal-agent-skills) - **License:** MIT Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above. ## Pricing - **Free** — Free ## Security capabilities Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access: - **Network access:** no - **Filesystem access:** no - **Shell / process execution:** no - **Environment & secrets:** no - **Dynamic code execution:** no *"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.* ## Versions - **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source. ## Links - Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-michaelsvanbeek-personal-agent-skills-status-updates - Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/michaelsvanbeek - Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse --- Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.