Rob Harrop

If you're writing to communicate within your organisation, save your readers—and yourself—some time by answering all obvious questions upfront.

I recently reviewed a memo written by a colleague updating the company about progress on our hiring goals. He wrote, “Last month, we hired a number of new engineers.”

This sentence doesn’t say much nor answer the questions the reader will likely ask. I see sentences like this all the time in internal communication, and it's such a shame because they miss the opportunity to save readers a lot of time by going into a bit more detail and answering the common questions.

The first question that comes to my mind is, “How many new engineers?! “ With a small change, we can answer the most pressing question: “Last month, we hired five new engineers.” This is a shorter sentence with more information.

Because we’re talking about hiring goals, there’s a target. We can use that target to tell the reader if five is a good number: “Last month, we hired five new engineers, beating our target of four.”

I'd be happy to read this last sentence in a memo, as the title for a slide in a presentation deck, or as a bullet point in an update message. But! I want more. I want the memo's next paragraph, the slide's body, or the sub-bullets to answer even more of my questions.

Who are these new hires? When do they join? What roles are they filling? Are these backfills or new hires? All of these are legitimate questions for the interested reader. Don't wait to be asked; answer them upfront.

Last month, we hired five new engineers, beating our target of four. Ada Wong (IC7) and Leon Kennedy (IC5) will join the T-virus team on November 30th. Chris Redfield (IC7), Jill Valentine (IC6), and Barry Burton (IC4) all join the G-virus team on December 7th.

This is much better. It contains all of the relevant information and answers the likely questions. Some questions may be unanswered (salary, previous experience, etc.). If so, you can refine your writing the next time you send a similar memo and answer those questions upfront, too.

For a slide in a presentation deck or more complex information, a bullet list is fine:

The more questions you answer in your initial document, slide, or message, the more you'll meet your readers' needs and the less time you'll spend answering those questions.

Whenever I write a memo for my boss, I make it a game with myself to get zero questions. I want the document to meet his needs as-is. I've not entirely managed zero questions yet, but each time I get a question, I learn something more to add to future documents.