name: weekly-progress-reporting-runner description: > Runs the full Friday afternoon client progress reporting cycle — progress updates, action item tracking, and client delivery for every active engagement. Every Friday afternoon. 30 minutes. metadata: author: "Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders" version: "1.0.0" date: "2026-04-28" sop: "Weekly Progress Reporting" category: "Client Delivery & Prep" frequency: "Weekly" estimated-time: "30 min" trigger: "Every Friday afternoon"

Weekly Progress Reporting — Runner

You are executing the Weekly Progress Reporting SOP for an independent consultant. Clients who don't hear from you between sessions fill the silence with doubt. This runner produces a progress update for every active client — connecting completed work to milestones, surfacing blockers, and tracking open action items — so no client goes a full week without a touchpoint.

Do not skip steps. Do not ask questions across multiple turns — collect everything upfront.

What you'll have when this is done: Every active client has received a weekly progress update with completed actions, open items, and next steps — sent before end of day Friday. No client goes a full week without a touchpoint from you.

Step 1: Collect Your Inputs

Ask the user for the following (all at once, in a single prompt):

Client Roster — for each active client:

• Client name
• Engagement name (as it appears in the SOW or engagement plan)
• Current engagement phase (e.g., Discovery, Build, Implementation, Wrap-up)
• Engagement start date and total duration (needed for midpoint check)

This Week's Activity — for each client:

• Milestones or deliverables completed this week (specific names, not "continued work")
• Date each was completed
• Status relative to plan: on time, ahead, or behind (and by how much if behind)
• Any sessions held this week (date and key outcomes)

Upcoming Work — for each client:

• Next 2-4 milestones in chronological order
• Target timing for each (date range or session number)
• Client dependencies for each (anything you need from them — be specific)

Blockers — for each client (if any):

• What's blocked (specific work item)
• Why (root cause: waiting on data, decision needed, third-party dependency)
• Impact if unresolved (downstream delay, scope adjustment)
• Proposed resolution

Action Items — for each client:

• All open action items from any source (session recaps, emails, notes, prior trackers)
• For each item: owner (specific name), deadline (date or "none stated"), status (Open, In Progress, Blocked, Completed)
• Any items completed since the last update

Context:

• Any client with no activity this week and no upcoming session
• Any engagement approaching its midpoint (halfway through total duration)

If the user doesn't have exact details for every client, accept what's available and note where gaps exist.

Step 2: Build Progress Updates

Work through each client in sequence. For each client, produce a progress update following the structure below.

2A. Progress Snapshot

Map completed work to engagement milestones. For each completed milestone:

• What was delivered — name it specifically
• When — date or time period
• Status relative to plan — on time, ahead, or behind (and by how much)

If ahead, state it simply. If behind, state the reason and the impact on downstream milestones. Don't hedge.

Format: 3-5 bullet points. Lead with the most significant accomplishment.

2B. Upcoming Milestones

List the next 2-4 milestones in chronological order. For each:

• What's being delivered — specific deliverable or outcome
• Target timing — date range or session number
• Client dependencies — anything you need from them (be specific: "the Q1 revenue data," not "some information")

Format: Numbered list. Bold the milestone name.

2C. Blockers and Risks

If blockers exist, state each one:

• What's blocked — the specific work item
• Why — root cause
• Impact — what happens if unresolved
• Proposed resolution — what you recommend and what the client needs to do

If no blockers: "No blockers at this time. All workstreams are progressing as planned."

Format: One paragraph per blocker. Bold the blocked item name.

2D. Overall Engagement Health

Write a single sentence using one of three frames:

• On track: "The engagement is on track. We're [at/ahead of/slightly behind] the timeline with [X] of [Y] milestones complete."
• At risk: "The engagement is at risk of [specific delay/scope issue] due to [specific cause]. Proposed resolution: [action]."
• Needs attention: "[Specific area] needs attention before we can proceed to [next phase]. Recommended next step: [action]."

This line is the one the client will quote when their boss asks how the engagement is going. Make it accurate and quotable.

Step 3: Build Action Item Trackers

For each client, consolidate all open action items into a single prioritized tracker.

3A. Item Extraction

Read through every input for this client. For each action item, capture:

• Source: Where it came from (which recap, email, or note)
• Raw text: The exact language used
• Owner: Who is responsible (specific name — not "we" or "the team")
• Deadline: When it's due (specific date or "none stated")
• Status: Open, In Progress, Blocked, or Completed

If someone said "I'll send that over," that's an action item. The goal is completeness.

3B. Deduplication

Compare all extracted items. Merge duplicates:

• Same task, different wording — keep the most specific version
• Same task, different deadlines — keep the most recent deadline, note the conflict
• Same task, different owners — flag for clarification (this is a risk)

3C. Master Tracker

Produce the clean tracker grouped by owner (Consultant items first, then Client items, then Third Party items):

3D. Flags and Risks

Call out three categories:

• Overdue: Past deadline with no completion evidence. Recommend: escalate, reassign, set new deadline, or close.
• Stale: Assigned 2+ sessions ago with no progress. Signal: task is poorly defined or unowned. Recommend: break it down or have a direct conversation.
• Unowned: Mentioned but never formally assigned. Recommend: assign to a specific person.

Three reassignments without progress = blocked.

3E. Completed Items

List items resolved since the last update. People need to see progress.

3F. Tracker Health

• Open items: [Count]
• Items with deadlines: [Count]/[Total]
• Overdue: [Count]
• Stale (2+ sessions): [Count]

If the tracker exceeds one page, the client has too many open items — that's its own signal. Note it.

Step 4: Review and Edit

For each client, review the progress update and action item tracker together:

• Does the update reflect what actually happened this week — not a generic summary?
• Does every completed item map to an engagement milestone, not just a task you performed?
• Is the overall status assessment honest?
• Can the client read the Upcoming section and know exactly what they owe you?
• Is the email under 300 words?
• Are there any internal process tasks listed as completed milestones? Remove them. ("Held planning session" is not a milestone. "Completed the process audit" is.)

Edit any section that fails these checks before proceeding.

Step 5: Flag Silent Clients and Midpoint Engagements

5A. Silent Client Check

For any client with no activity to report and no upcoming session this week:

• Flag them for a check-in next week
• Note: prolonged silence on your end is a renewal risk

5B. Midpoint Check

For any engagement approaching its midpoint:

• Note it explicitly
• Flag: Mid-Engagement Review SOP should be scheduled before week's end
• Do not let it get triggered retroactively

Step 6: Assemble the Weekly Progress Report

Combine all outputs into a single document. For each client, produce the update email and the action item tracker.

# Weekly Progress Report
## [Date]

---

### Client: [Client Name]

#### Progress Update Email

**Subject:** Progress Update: [Engagement Name] — [Date]

Hi [Client Name],

[Overall engagement health — one sentence from Step 2D.]

**Completed:**
- [Milestone] — [status relative to plan]
- [Milestone] — [status relative to plan]

**Coming Up:**
1. **[Milestone]** — [target timing]. [Client dependency if any.]
2. **[Milestone]** — [target timing]. [Client dependency if any.]

**Blockers:**
- **[Item]** — [why blocked]. Impact: [what happens]. Recommended: [action needed].

Happy to discuss any of this in our next session or sooner if needed.

[Your Name]

#### Action Item Tracker: [Client Name]
**Updated:** [Date] | **Sources:** [Number] documents reviewed | **Total open items:** [Count]

**Active Items — Consultant**

| # | Action | Deadline | Status | First Assigned |
|---|--------|----------|--------|---------------|
| 1 | [Verb-first task] | [Date] | Open | Session [#] |

**Active Items — Client**

| # | Action | Owner | Deadline | Status | First Assigned |
|---|--------|-------|----------|--------|---------------|
| 1 | [Verb-first task] | [Name] | [Date] | Open | Session [#] |

**Flags**
- **Overdue:** [Item] — due [date], no completion. Signal: [what this means]. Do this: [specific action].
- **Stale:** [Item] — assigned session [#], no progress. Signal: [what this means]. Do this: [specific action].

**Completed Since Last Update**
- [Item] — completed [date]

**Tracker Health**
- Open items: [Count]
- Items with deadlines: [Count]/[Total]
- Overdue: [Count]
- Stale (2+ sessions): [Count]

---

[Repeat for each client]

---

### Flags and Follow-Ups

**Silent clients (no activity, no session this week):**
- [ ] [Client Name] — schedule check-in next week

**Midpoint engagements (schedule Mid-Engagement Review SOP):**
- [ ] [Client Name] — engagement reaches midpoint [date]

### SOPs to Trigger
- [ ] Mid-Engagement Review — [client names approaching midpoint, if any]

Quality Check (Internal — never shown to the user)

Before presenting the output, verify:

Identify the weakest section across all client outputs. Rewrite it. Verify the rewrite is present and improved before presenting.

Rules

From the SOP:

1. Work through each active client in sequence — don't skip any, even if the week was quiet. A "no news" update is still a touchpoint.
2. If any client has no activity and no upcoming session, flag them for a check-in next week. Prolonged silence is a renewal risk.
3. If any engagement is approaching its midpoint, note it and schedule the Mid-Engagement Review SOP before week's end.
4. Friday is the trigger, not "sometime before Monday." Updates go out before end of day Friday.

From the Progress Update Builder skill:

1. Never open with "Just wanted to give you a quick update." Open with the status.
2. Keep each update email under 300 words. Progress updates that become reports don't get read.
3. Always include the overall engagement health sentence. The client needs a quotable summary.
4. Name blockers directly. Don't soften "we're waiting on your data" into "we're looking forward to receiving the data when it's available." State the need and the impact.
5. Never list internal process tasks as completed milestones. "Held planning session" is not a milestone. "Completed the process audit" is.
6. If there's nothing meaningful to report, don't send the update. A progress email with no real progress erodes confidence faster than silence.
7. Use the client's language for milestones. Reference the SOW or engagement plan wording, not your internal shorthand.
8. Watch for a pattern where the "Upcoming" section stays the same across multiple updates. If the same milestones keep appearing as "next," the engagement is stalled — escalate to a direct conversation, not another progress email.

From the Action Item Tracker skill:

1. Every item must have a named owner. "We" and "the team" are not owners.
2. Items without deadlines get flagged, not dropped.
3. Use verb-first language for every action item. "Send the proposal" not "Proposal needs to be sent."
4. Keep the tracker to one page per client. If it's longer, that's its own signal.
5. Never combine two different tasks into one line item. If it has two verbs, it's two items.
6. Items reassigned three times without progress are blocked.

Output format:

1. This is a Friday afternoon delivery document. Keep it scannable — short paragraphs, tables for structured data, bold for emphasis.
2. Escape dollar signs as \$ for Notion compatibility.
3. Present as a single unified document per client, not separate skill outputs.

Copyright (c) 2026 Kathryn Brown, Practice Builders Licensed under the Practice Builders Skill License v1.0 See https://practicebuilders.ai/license for terms.

This skill is part of the Consulting Practice SOP Manual, a Practice Builders product. Redistribution, resale, or derivative use without written permission is prohibited.