Three years ago, while consulting for Delta Airlines as a product strategist, I started writing a weekly roundup email on Friday afternoons that no one asked me to write, and it quickly became my favorite part of the week.
At the time, I worked closely with Delta’s internal design and research teams and coordinated surveys, user tests, and product insights work. I found myself having a lot of loose ends, and the project was moving quickly. We were all working on launching the first Free Wi-Fi initiative; it was all hands on deck. So I started to do a weekly write-up, list the few things I was working on, point to places- either working draft surveys or decks that needed feedback- and have a space to talk about the work myself, the researchers, and other product insights folks were working on.
It also had the positive impact of my clients, the wonderful people in in-flight connectivity, feeling like they were more in the loop. They started to anticipate on Fridays that I would send my updates and that they would reply to my questions, open the resources I sent, and give me the feedback so I could keep my work moving. It reduced meetings about the work, established a cadence to batch-collect what I needed to make progress, and put everybody on the same page about where the work stood.
Even in the age of AI, writing my own syncs is a part of my practice I intend to keep. You can use AI to skim your calendar, read your meeting notes, and create a summary. However, writing these myself significantly improved my productivity and the quality of my work. First, writing the summary itself helps me process my week: what did I accomplish over the past 4-5 days that was worth noting? Where did I have open questions? What did I want to do next week?
When I returned to Verizon after a previous tenure a few years ago, I knew the design team's caliber and speed, and I carried this weekly sync practice forward. One thing I have to say: we produce a lot of work, and I needed a way to organize it. So I leveled up my weekly sync emails into a blog.
Here is a repeatable format that evolved over three years and two companies:
A quick summary of the week; try to capture the tone: “Wow, we really made contact with all of our key stakeholders this week!”
Org Updates: New hires, departures, leadership meeting recaps, and anything else the team should know.
Workstreams: Give a quick sentence overview of what happened this week, who you talked to, what artifacts we created, and link Figma files, decks, or presentations. This is where the effort lies: collecting and organizing each workstream. Tag whoever did the work. This tag helps to skim for mid- and end-of-year reviews. Also include stakeholder comments, resources, and feedback. Last, include shoutouts for incredible work done (my favorite part).
Next week: It’s incredibly important to list what was not accomplished this week. No finger-pointing, no judgment, just point out answers that were not collected, meetings that were rescheduled or canceled. Presentations pushed. “That meeting with the business stakeholder was moved to two weeks from now; let’s make sure to ask about % of users who did x,y,z”. The better you are at closing loops, the more momentum you drive.
The blogs set the tone not only for me, but for all the team members who could consume our work and make sense of it. They became a reference point for my senior leadership, who could reference the blogs I would always repost in Slack and see our progress for the week. I always invited the team to edit what I wrote, add content, or comment, the more content, the better.
I write the weekly note myself. Everything downstream of it- the landing pages, the quarterly rollups, a skills synthesis- that's where AI earns its keep.
I used these notes and used AI to create internal team landing pages that hosted the work progress over the year. They showed where the workstreams started how they progressed, what we accomplished, and which stakeholders we relied on. It became something both the working team and leadership could reference. The blog archive makes mid- and end-of-year reviews a breeze, and I trust every word of it, because I wrote it myself.
The knowledge management part of the job isn't glamorous; it takes effort, skill, and a bit of enthusiasm for the work. It amplifies, accelerates, and validates the hard work your team does, and it's part of my practice that I will continue year over year. Seeing your team and leadership respond positively to it is what keeps you doing it.