I used to hate producing reports. At its best, it often felt tedious and useless, at its worse, it felt dirty or dangerous. This was the case until I found a way to provide them with meaning.
Reports, at their best, are a way to communicate the state of things. As in all communication our focus should be in the people with whom we are interacting. For whom is the report? What do they need to know? What are they likely to do with their new knowledge? I also try and put specific faces and names to my audience, so I can understand what they need and what I want to communicate with the report.
Think about a hypothetical portfolio Monthly Operations Report. Who is it for? What is it for? John, the Product Launches Manager, needs to know when we are likely to be ready to release the promising new service and the final list of features that will be included, as he is planning all the marketing efforts to support it. Jane, as our CTO, is accountable for the performance of our technical delivery and operations, so she needs to be able to perceive when we need her to help to avoid things going south. We need to protect her from unnecessary surprises. Don, our operations director, relies in his section of the report to highlight risks and to call attention to issues so the rest of us can support his team in addressing them. That’s the Monthly Operations Report reason to exist. That is why we do it.
The Adaptive Executive 