Draft the stakeholder update · MS-4004

By the end of this task, you will be able to compress account research and performance analysis into an update a busy leader can act on without opening an attachment.

Your situation

Lynne Robbins, your sales manager, has not looked at this account since the July escalation. The March review is three weeks out and you need two things from her: agreement on the proposal approach, and her presence in the room.

She reads email on her phone between meetings. If the ask is in paragraph four, it will not be read.

Important

Deliverable: a short internal update with the account position, what changed, the risk, and one clear request — readable on a phone.

Files you'll use

File	What's in it
Your analytic summary from Task 5	The site-level finding
Your executive brief from Task 2	The account narrative and the numbers
CanadaPost_Account_Research_Notes.txt	Interaction history and open risks
CanadaPost_Discovery_Call_Notes.md	Commitments made to the customer, and their due dates

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

Open Outlook and start a new message to your sales manager.
Attach or reference your Task 2 and Task 5 outputs, then open the Copilot pane.
Prompt t6-a
goal
Draft an internal update to my sales manager on the Tailwind Traders account.
context
She has not looked at this account since the July service escalation, the customer’s pricing review is in three weeks, and I need her to approve the proposal approach and attend the review.
sources
Use the attached executive brief and branch analysis.
expectations
Under 200 words, with a subject line that states the ask and a first sentence that is what I need from her. Then four short sections: where the account stands, what changed, what is at risk, and what I recommend. Plain sentences, no pleasantries, and no summary of the summary.
Most first drafts bury the request. Check yours.
Prompt t6-b
goal
Tell me where the ask actually is in this draft.
context
She reads on a phone between meetings and may only see the first few lines.
sources
Use the draft in this message.
expectations
Quote the sentence containing the request and say which line it falls on. If it is not in the first two sentences, rewrite the opening so it is, without adding length.
Tighten the language. Vague verbs are where accountability goes to hide.
Prompt t6-c
goal
Remove every sentence that does not carry information.
context
This is an internal note between colleagues who know the account, so context she already has is wasted space.
sources
Use the draft in this message.
expectations
Cut the hedging and the filler, replace vague verbs like explore, align, and look into with the specific action and a date, keep every number, and report the new word count.
Write the version that goes to the customer instead. Same facts, different reader.
Prompt t6-d
goal
Rewrite this as a short note to Nestor Wilke, the customer’s Director of Distribution Operations.
context
Nestor is our champion and is under internal pressure over these same numbers. He is judged on on-time delivery, and on 9 January we committed to give him Calgary findings by the end of February.
sources
Use the same facts as the internal version.
expectations
Acknowledge the commitment and its date, state what we have found without claiming a cause, and say what happens next and when. No defensiveness, no apology paragraph, under 150 words.
Compare the two drafts side by side. Note what changed and what stayed identical — the facts should not move.
Save both. Task 7 turns the customer version into the full proposal.

Check your work

The subject line states the ask, not the topic.
The request appears in the first two sentences.
Under 200 words internal, under 150 customer-facing.
Every "we will" has a date attached.
The two versions share the same facts and differ only in framing.

Stretch prompts

Starting out:

Draft a short internal update on the Tailwind account
covering status, findings, risk, and next step. Under 200
words.

Comfortable:

Write the update, then write the three-line version I would
send if my manager replied "just give me the headline".

Confident:

Draft the note to Nestor Wilke. Then tell me which sentence
he is most likely to forward to his own leadership, and
whether I would be comfortable with that sentence being read
without the rest of the message.

Tip

Step 5 is the real skill: the same evidence, re-aimed at a different reader, with the facts held constant. If the facts change between versions, one of them is wrong.