Internal Communications Templates

Load this file for decision memos, team rituals, async updates, meeting agendas, and internal announcements.

Decision Memo (1-Page)

Use before making any major decision. Circulate for input. Archive after.

DECISION MEMO

Title: [Decision name — specific]
Author: [Name]
Date: [Date]
Status: [Draft for input / Final / Approved]
Decision needed by: [Date]

CONTEXT
[2–3 sentences: what situation led to this decision point]

THE DECISION
[Exactly what is being decided — single, specific question]

OPTIONS CONSIDERED

Option A: [Name]
  What it is: [Description]
  Pros: [Bullet points]
  Cons: [Bullet points]
  Cost/effort: [Time, money, or complexity]

Option B: [Name]
  What it is: [Description]
  Pros: [Bullet points]
  Cons: [Bullet points]
  Cost/effort: [Time, money, or complexity]

Option C (if applicable): [Name]
  [Same format]

RECOMMENDATION
[Clear recommendation with rationale — 2–3 sentences]

RISKS IF WRONG
[What's the downside if this decision turns out to be wrong?]

REVERSIBILITY
[Can this be undone? How easily?]

INPUTS NEEDED
[Who should weigh in before this is finalized — and by when]

DECISION LOG (fill in after decision is made)
Decision: [Option chosen]
Made by: [Name]
Date: [Date]
Rationale: [Brief]

Weekly Team Update (Async — Slack or Email)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[COMPANY] — WEEK OF [DATE]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SHIPPED THIS WEEK
• [Deliverable 1]
• [Deliverable 2]
• [Deliverable 3]

IN PROGRESS
• [Thing 1] — owner: [Name], ETA: [Date]
• [Thing 2] — owner: [Name], ETA: [Date]

BLOCKED / NEEDS HELP
• [Blocker 1] — who can unblock this?

NUMBERS
• [Key metric 1]: [Value]
• [Key metric 2]: [Value]

NEXT WEEK PRIORITIES
1. [Priority 1]
2. [Priority 2]
3. [Priority 3]

SHOUTOUT
[Recognize one person for something specific — name the behavior, not just "great job"]

Daily Standup Format (Async)

[Name] — [Date]

✅ DONE yesterday:
• [Item]
• [Item]

🔨 DOING today:
• [Item]
• [Item]

🚧 BLOCKED:
• [Item — what's blocking and who needs to help] (or "Nothing blocked")

Sprint Planning Agenda (2-Week Sprint)

SPRINT PLANNING — [Sprint #X] — [Date]
Duration: 60 minutes

1. RETROSPECTIVE (15 min)
   Last sprint: what shipped, what didn't, why
   One thing we do differently next sprint

2. PRIORITIES (10 min)
   What must be done this sprint?
   What would be great to get done?
   What's explicitly out of scope?

3. TASK BREAKDOWN (25 min)
   For each priority item:
   • Who owns it?
   • What does done look like?
   • What's the time estimate?

4. CAPACITY CHECK (5 min)
   Any vacations, conflicts, or known interruptions?

5. SPRINT GOAL (5 min)
   One sentence: what does a successful sprint look like?
   Write it down. Put it somewhere visible.

Sprint Retrospective Format

SPRINT [X] RETROSPECTIVE — [Date]

WHAT SHIPPED
• [Item 1]
• [Item 2]
• [Item 3]

WHAT DIDN'T SHIP
• [Item] — why not: [honest reason]

WHAT WORKED WELL
• [Process or practice worth keeping]
• [Collaboration or communication win]

WHAT TO IMPROVE
• [Specific thing to change next sprint]
• [Root cause if known]

ACTION ITEM FOR NEXT SPRINT
[1 specific change, owned by [Name], to address the biggest improvement area]

1:1 Meeting Template (Weekly / Biweekly)

1:1 AGENDA — [Manager] + [Team Member] — [Date]

STATUS (10 min)
• What's going well?
• What's frustrating or unclear?
• Anything I should know about that's not in the standup?

PRIORITIES (10 min)
• Are you working on the right things?
• Any blockers I can remove?
• Anything you need from me?

GROWTH (5–10 min — not every week)
• How are you feeling about your growth here?
• What would make your work more meaningful?
• What skills do you want to develop?

MANAGER SHARE (5 min)
• Context the team member should have
• Any feedback from my side

OPEN (5 min)
• Anything else?

[Document key points and action items after the meeting]

Internal Announcement — New Hire

Team,

I'm excited to introduce [Name] — our new [Title].

[Name] is joining us from [background — previous company, relevant experience,
or what they bring]. They'll be [what they own — specific, not vague].

First day: [Date]. If you want to say hi before then: [Slack handle / email]

[Name] — welcome to the team. We're glad you're here.

[Founder]

Internal Announcement — Major Company News

Team,

I want to share something directly with all of you before it goes anywhere else.

[THE NEWS — specific, honest]

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING
[Clear explanation — not PR speak. Your team deserves context.]

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU
[Direct answer: nothing changes / roles change / team changes — be specific]

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
• [Step 1 — with date]
• [Step 2 — with date]

I'll be available [today / this week] for questions. You can reply here,
DM me on Slack, or [schedule time: Calendly link].

I'm proud of what we've built together and I don't take any of this lightly.

[Name]

OKR Template (Quarterly)

COMPANY OKRs — Q[X] [Year]
Set: [Date] | Review: [Midpoint date] | Final: [End date]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OBJECTIVE 1: [Qualitative goal — inspiring but clear]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  KR1.1: [Measurable result with number and deadline]
  KR1.2: [Measurable result with number and deadline]
  KR1.3: [Measurable result with number and deadline]
  Owner: [Name]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OBJECTIVE 2: [Qualitative goal]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  KR2.1: [Measurable result]
  KR2.2: [Measurable result]
  KR2.3: [Measurable result]
  Owner: [Name]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OBJECTIVE 3: [Qualitative goal]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  KR3.1: [Measurable result]
  KR3.2: [Measurable result]
  Owner: [Name]

OKR RULES:
• Max 3 objectives per quarter
• Max 3 KRs per objective
• Each KR is binary or measurable — not "improve X" but "reach X by Date"
• Grade at end of quarter: 0.0–1.0 (0.7 = success; 1.0 = set too easy)

Async Decision Log

Keep a running document. Add one entry per major decision.

DECISION LOG — [Company Name]

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[Date] | [Decision title]
Decided by: [Name(s)]
Decision: [What was decided — 1 sentence]
Rationale: [Why — 1–2 sentences]
Alternatives considered: [Brief list]
Reversible? [Yes / No / Partially]
Next review: [Date or trigger]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Next entry...]

Post-Mortem Template (After a Miss or Incident)

POST-MORTEM: [Event name]
Date of event: [Date]
Date of post-mortem: [Date]
Author: [Name]
Attendees: [Names]

TIMELINE
[Chronological account of what happened — factual, not interpretive]

ROOT CAUSE
[The real reason this happened — not the surface symptom]

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
• [Factor 1]
• [Factor 2]

WHAT WENT WELL
[Things that limited damage or helped recovery — acknowledge these]

WHAT WENT POORLY
[Honest list — without blame]

ACTION ITEMS
[Item] — Owner: [Name] — Due: [Date]
[Item] — Owner: [Name] — Due: [Date]

WHAT WE'D DO DIFFERENTLY
[If we faced this situation again — what changes?]