The truth about writing email requests

You know how you are reading this long email, and, lost and out of breath, you finally reach the end of it completely puzzled and wondering: what it is about? What is the intention of this verbiage? Do I need to do something? I do not even know if and what to respond to it.

What is happening is the message is lacking structure and missing clarity and it left you utterly confused wandering in the dark with no hope of illumination.

As the saying goes: “if you confuse you lose”, and, to be understood, structure your message to bring clarity to your point.

Here are 3 handy structures you can use to stand out from mediocrity by writing emails that are organized and get results.

These 3 structures help you shape your request and make it is easy for your reader to understand and respond favorably to your request. Please note that the same structures can be used to inform of a decision you have made.

We will demonstrate these 3 structures through an example.

“What – So What – Now What” structure

I suggest you keep the “What – So What – Now What” headlines in the email as it guides the reader through your points, in the same way that you would not drive on the other side of the road but the white line marking in the middle of the road is left as a reminder.

What – context, set the scene

In this section you provide the context, describe the facts and the current situation and what is happening.

Example:

The team of 30 people from departments D1, D3 and D4 is working on the Mega release for MegaPlus company due to be released on 17th December and we are 2 weeks behind schedule.

So What – how is that relevant for the reader?

In this section you give your view and explain why that matters to your reader and what are the implications of the current situation.

Example:

We have been tracking the progress in the last month and our analysis is that this 2 week delay will not be recovered thus triggering clause 22 of the contract for a 30K dollars penalty for missing the release date milestone.

Now What- what is the request to the reader?

In this section, based on the situation and impact described previously, we are making a specific request to address the particular issue.

Example:

My recommendation is to hire John B for 4 weeks at a cost of 2.5K dollars a week starting on Monday next week. We have been in touch with him, briefed him and he is available to help out. His expertise, experience in the previous release as well as his contact of the software as well as his contacts with the customer will allow us to recover the time and meet the deadline. Peter, can you please approve this hiring request by midday Tuesday?

The 4Ps structure is a variant of the “What – So what – Now what” structure that details other alternatives assessed and discarded in favor of the chosen request.

4Ps structure

Position – What are you talking about?

Here you describe the situation/position we find ourselves in.

Example:

The team of 30 people from department D1, D3 and D4 is working on the Mega release for MegaPlus company due to be released on 17th December and we are 2 weeks behind schedule.

Problem – how is that an issue and matters to the reader?

Example:

We have been tracking the progress in the last month and our analysis is that this delay will not be recovered thus triggering clause 22 of the contract for a 30K dollars penalty for missing the release date milestone.

Possibility: what are the options?

In this section you present to the reader the alternatives you have assessed to remediate the situation.

Example:

We have brainstormed these options:

• Delay launch date

We have discussed with the stakeholders and delaying the launch date will be perceived very negatively by the market just before the customer presents the quarterly financial results.

• Have a lightweight launch with some features pushed out for later

The team and product owner reviewed the features to be delivered but all of them have been considered as non negotiable for this release of the product.

• Team structure change

We have considered reorganizing the team to be more effective but it would have taken 2 months for the organization change to start showing more velocity in the delivery.

• Add staff members

John B and Paul S are suitable experience developers that would help recover the delay. Paul S is not available for another month though.

Proposal going forward to remediate it and specific request to the reader

Example:

After weighing all alternatives, my recommendation is to hire John B for 4 weeks at a cost of 2.5K dollars a week starting on Monday next week on the MegaPlus project. We have been in touch with him, briefed him and he is available to help out. His expertise, and experience in the previous release of the software as well as his contacts with the customer will allow us to recover the time and meet the deadline. Peter, can you please approve this hiring request by midday Tuesday?

For the above build up approaches we demonstrate our thought process, logic and path leading to the request:

The “Busy Executive structure” aims to have the problem and solution stated in the first sentence. It is a “reverse engineering” and straight to the point approach as opposed to a build up approach. That way, if the executive has no time or inclination to learn more about the issue, she/he still knows what is expected of her/him without reading the rest of the email.

The paragraphs following the first sentence provide a detailed analysis and how and why you came up with this solution to fix the problem.

The sequence of steps for the Build up structure versus the Busy Executive structure are represented in this diagram:

(*) In the 4Ps structure you describe the various options while in the “What – So What – Now What” structure you may leave out other options considered and focus on your request.

Busy Executive structure?

First sentence – State the request and the issue. That is all the executive needs to know if he/she does not have the time or inclination to read further details.

Example: Peter, can you please approve by Tuesday midday hiring John B from Monday for 4 weeks at a cost of 2.5K a week to avoid missing the delivery date of 17th December and incurring a 30K penalty for the MegaPlus project?

Second paragraph – you explain the other options you had considered and discarded.

You can include here the same information you would have provided in the Possibility section of the 4Ps approach

Example:

We have brainstormed these options to address the delivery delay:

·??????Delay launch date

We have discussed with the stakeholders and delaying the launch date will be perceived very negatively by the market just before the customer presents the quarterly financial results.

• Have a lightweight launch with some features pushed out for later

The team and product owner reviewed the features to be delivered but all of them have been considered as non negotiable for this release of the product.

• Team structure change

We have considered reorganizing the team to be more effective but it would have taken 2 months for the organization change to start showing more velocity in the delivery.

• Add staff members

We have been in touch with John B, briefed him and he is available to help out. His expertise, and experience in the previous release of the software as well as his contacts with the customer will allow us to recover the time and meet the deadline.

Third paragraph – additional information for completeness and give the full picture

Example:

A team of 30 people from department D1, D3 and D4 is working on the Mega release for MegaPlus company. This is a key strategic project and its status we will be discussed at the next steering board. We have committed to inform the customer of our plan of action to get back to green by the end of the week.

?In conclusion, you apply the “What – so What – Noe What” structure if you want to show the buildup of arguments to make the request, the 4Ps structure when you want to share all options considered and the “Busy executive structure” for stakeholders who want to know what is asked of them right away without necessarily going through the whole story and background. Another criterion is to pick the structure you prefer.