Executive comms — one-pager, narrative, six-pager.

The one-pager

For weekly / monthly status. Top: TL;DR + RAG colors. Middle: what changed, key risks. Bottom: decisions needed. The exec should be able to read TL;DR + decisions and have what they need; the rest is for them to dig into if they want.

Narrative memo

For proposals and strategy. Prose, not bullets. Should read like a Wall Street Journal article: lede, supporting paragraphs, conclusion. The discipline of writing in full sentences forces you to actually think the argument through, instead of hiding behind bullet ambiguity.

The Amazon six-pager

Bezos famously banned PowerPoint at Amazon meetings (2004). The replacement: a six-page narrative memo, read silently for the first 20 minutes of the meeting, then discussed. Forcing structure: typically context, customer problem, proposed solution, alternatives considered, FAQs, appendix. The format demands rigorous thinking; it's harder to write a good 6-pager than a great 30-slide deck.