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Internal Communications Skill

The Internal Communications skill provides templates and workflows for writing common internal communication formats. It helps maintain consistency and quality across team updates, company announcements, and employee communications.

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When to Use

Use this skill for:
  • 3P Updates: Progress, Plans, Problems team updates
  • Company Newsletters: Company-wide weekly or monthly updates
  • FAQ Responses: Answering frequently asked employee questions
  • Status Reports: Project and team status communications
  • Leadership Updates: Executive communications
  • Project Updates: Initiative-specific communications
  • Incident Reports: Post-incident communications
Keywords: 3P updates, company newsletter, company comms, weekly update, faqs, common questions, updates, internal comms

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Communication Types

The skill provides specialized templates for four main communication types:
Purpose: Succinct team updates for executives and leadershipFormat: Single-paragraph update covering three areas:
  • Progress: What the team accomplished (past week)
  • Plans: What the team will do next (next week)
  • Problems: What’s blocking or slowing the team
Reading time: 30-60 secondsAudience: People with some context on what the team does
Purpose: Summarize the past week/month for the entire companyFormat: 20-25 bullet points organized by sectionsContent: Company-wide announcements, major milestones, leadership updates, external recognitionChannels: Slack and email
Purpose: Answer common employee questions to reduce confusionFormat: Question and answer pairs (1-2 sentences each)Topics: Corporate events, launches, hiring, vision changes, policy updatesSource: Questions across Slack, email, and documents
Purpose: Other internal communications that don’t fit standard formatsApproach: Custom format based on audience, purpose, and toneExamples: Policy announcements, event invitations, process changes

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3P Updates

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Format Structure

The format is strict and consistent: 
[emoji] [Team Name] (Dates Covered)
Progress: [1-3 sentences]
Plans: [1-3 sentences]
Problems: [1-3 sentences]
Pick an emoji that captures the vibe of the team and update. Keep it fun but professional.

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Writing Guidelines

Progress Section:
  • Focus on things shipped, milestones achieved, tasks completed
  • Use metrics and data where possible
  • Cover work from the past week (or specified time period)
  • Be specific: “Shipped feature X to 10k users” not “Made progress on features”
Plans Section:
  • Highlight top priorities for the next week
  • Focus on what’s most important and urgent
  • Give a sense of team direction
  • Be realistic about what can be accomplished
Problems Section:
  • Identify blockers preventing progress
  • Call out resource constraints (people, tools, budget)
  • Mention dependencies on other teams
  • Highlight risks or issues needing escalation
The bigger the team, the less granular the tasks. A mobile team might have “fixed bugs” while a company-level update would have “hired 20 new people” or “closed 10 new deals.”

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Gathering Information

If you have access to tools:
  • Slack: Posts with lots of reactions, announcements from team members
  • Google Drive: Docs from team members with high view counts
  • Email: Threads with many responses
  • Calendar: Important non-recurring meetings (product reviews, launches)
Focus on:
  • Progress: One week ago to today
  • Plans: Today to next week
  • Problems: One week ago to today

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Workflow

  1. Clarify scope: Confirm team name and time period (usually past week)
  2. Gather information: Use available tools or ask user directly
  3. Draft update: Follow strict formatting guidelines
  4. Review: Ensure it’s concise (30-60 seconds) and data-driven

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Example

🚀 Mobile Team (Mar 1-7)
Progress: Shipped push notification feature to 15k iOS users with 23% opt-in rate; reduced crash rate from 2.1% to 0.8% through bug fixes.
Plans: Begin Android version of push notifications; complete UI refresh designs; onboard 2 new mobile engineers.
Problems: Backend API latency averaging 800ms (target: 200ms) blocking several features; still need approval for analytics vendor.

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Company Newsletters

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Format and Length

  • Length: 20-25 bullet points
  • Channels: Slack and email
  • Tone: Use “we” tense - you’re part of the company

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Content Guidelines

Include:
  • Lots of links (Google Drive docs, Slack messages, company-wide emails)
  • Short, to-the-point bullets (1-2 sentences each)
  • Company-wide impact items
  • Announcements from leadership
  • Major milestones and achievements
  • External recognition or press
Avoid:
  • Overly granular team updates (save for 3Ps)
  • Information only relevant to small groups
  • Duplicate information already communicated

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Section Organization

Break updates into logical sections. Examples:
  • By function: Product Development, Go to Market, Finance
  • By theme: Recruiting, Execution, Vision
  • By scope: External News, Internal News
  • By audience: Company Announcements, Leadership Updates, Team Highlights
Use emojis to make sections visually distinct: 📣 Announcements, 🎯 Priorities, 🏛️ Leadership, 🧵 Social Updates

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Example Structure

📣 Company Announcements
- Raised $50M Series B led by [Investor] - [link to blog post]
- Crossed 100k active users milestone - [link to dashboard]
- Opening Austin office in Q2 - [link to FAQ doc]

🎯 Progress on Priorities
- Product
  - Launched v2.0 with 15 new features - [link to release notes]
  - Reduced page load time by 40% - [link to tech blog]
- Sales
  - Closed 12 enterprise deals totaling $2M ARR - [link to wins channel]
  - Expanded partnership with [Company] - [link to press release]

🏛️ Leadership Updates
- [CEO] shared Q1 results and Q2 priorities - [link to all-hands doc]
- [CTO] posted engineering principles guide - [link to doc]

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Tools to Use

If available:
  • Slack: Messages in large channels with high engagement (reactions, replies)
  • Email: Executive announcements, company-wide communications
  • Calendar: All-hands meetings, major announcements (check attached docs)
  • Documents: Vision docs, quarterly plans, executive-authored content
  • External press: Recent articles or media coverage
If you don’t have access to these tools, let the user know their newsletters would be more comprehensive with tool access, or ask them to provide the content directly.

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FAQ Responses

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Purpose

Help employees stay informed by answering common questions about:
  • Recent corporate events (fundraising, new executives)
  • Upcoming launches
  • Hiring progress
  • Changes to vision or focus
  • Policy or process changes

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Format

- *Question*: [1 sentence question]
- *Answer*: [1-2 sentence answer]

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Gathering Questions

Look for questions that:
  • Are asked by multiple people
  • Have lots of reactions or thumbs up
  • Affect a large portion of employees
  • Create confusion across teams
Sources:
  • Slack: Questions with high engagement, repeated questions across channels
  • Email: FAQs in company-wide emails
  • Documents: Questions implied by document content or explicitly listed

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Answer Guidelines

  • Base answers on official company communications when possible
  • If uncertain, indicate that clearly (“This is still being finalized”)
  • Link to authoritative sources (docs, announcements, emails)
  • Keep tone professional but approachable
  • Flag if a question requires executive input or official response
Be holistic - don’t focus only on one team or department. Capture questions relevant to the entire company.

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Example

- *Question*: When will the new office open?
- *Answer*: The Austin office is scheduled to open May 15th, with move-in starting June 1st. See the [facilities FAQ doc] for details on desk selection and amenities.

- *Question*: What's our updated hiring target for Q2?
- *Answer*: We're planning to hire 25 people in Q2, focused on Engineering (15) and Sales (10). Open roles are posted at [careers page].

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General Communications

For communications that don’t fit standard formats, the skill guides you to:
  1. Identify audience: Who will read this?
  2. Define purpose: What should happen after they read it?
  3. Set tone: Formal, casual, urgent, informational?
  4. Confirm format: Any specific structure or requirements?

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General Principles

  • Be clear and concise
  • Use active voice
  • Put most important information first
  • Include relevant links and references
  • Match the company’s communication style

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Best Practices

Across all internal communications:
  1. Be data-driven: Use metrics and specific examples
  2. Link generously: Help readers find more information
  3. Keep it scannable: Use bullets, short paragraphs, clear headers
  4. Match company tone: Adapt to your organization’s style
  5. Test readability: Can someone understand this in 1-2 minutes?
  6. Provide context: Don’t assume everyone has background knowledge
  • Doc Co-Authoring: For longer-form documentation and proposals
  • Brand Guidelines: To apply visual styling to formatted communications

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