How to Create Impactful Reports for Stakeholders: Tips and Best Practices

Information is at the heart of growth in a business. Without understanding the details of particular processes, from the workflow of individual teams to the expected margins for a given project, stakeholders cannot make effective decisions. One complication is that the various stakeholders within a tech company are interested in varying topics and data. While cycle time may interest one group, another will want to know how much profit an individual or team brings to a company.
Reports are important to keep stakeholders updated; however, there are several considerations to remember when creating them. This article will explore the common stakeholder groups within a tech business, their interests, and how to create impactful reports for each group.
Stakeholders
This text will focus on stakeholders within the tech industry, specifically in terms of the roles they hold in a company. In that sense, there will not be the traditional separation of external and internal stakeholders. The reasoning is that, in many cases, the client may be a department or stakeholder within the company. Likewise, another business may be a client, but the stakeholder roles within that business have various interests that do not fit within a single category. Therefore, this text will examine stakeholders based on the following roles:
- Investors
- CEO/Founder
- CTO
- HR
- Middle management (Project and Delivery Managers)
These stakeholders are united by their aim of creating and maintaining a successful tech business; however, the specific areas they are interested in differ. Investors are interested in surface-level signals of profit and development, while middle managers observe day-to-day operations and processes to increase performance and remove roadblocks. In this regard, they require different reports that consider the information that will be most useful and interesting.
Investors
The investors of a tech business are important stakeholders, whether in private or public companies. They require regular documentation and evidence that the business is successful and moving toward its proclaimed goals, such as margins. Even when roadblocks occur, which they always do, investors need to know the company's leadership has the situation under control.
CEO and founders
In most cases, the founders of a tech company will also have invested their money into the business. Still, their status as the founder and perhaps the CEO changes their perspective on what signals they need to see and understand. They report to their chief investors, such as a fund or individual. The CEO and founder must see their company in numbers to manage finances, from margins to predictable profits. This includes contracts with clients, payroll information, and more.
CTO
The Chief Technology Officer is the bridge between the software engineers of a company and the CEO, founders, and investors. They are responsible for the business's IT infrastructure and ensuring that code-related processes run smoothly and produce the desired results. The CTO must balance the speed of development with the need to reduce the amount of tech debt that will affect the quality of a product or feature. To do this, they need reports on signals that reflect the current state of coding that provide them with evidence they can take to higher-level stakeholders to request more resources or demonstrate positive performance.
HR
A company's performance depends, in part, on the level of employee satisfaction. This may involve cases of over or underworking, performance reviews, contact between employees and managers, and many more factors. The Human Resources team needs reports that allow them to track employee behavior, which could indicate underlying symptoms of burnout, and address these issues before they become critical.
Middle management
As the managers with the clearest understanding of a particular project's team and processes, project and delivery managers require reports that tell them how well their teams are performing, what the status is of particular tasks, and what, if any, roadblocks may keep them from achieving their goals. These signals then need to be reported to clients and other stakeholders to keep them informed.
Agile stakeholder reporting
The most efficient means of reporting results to different stakeholders, such as those listed above, where they find the signals and metrics they need, is to prepare Agile reports. Reporting this information to stakeholders is useful to maintain accountability and legitimacy throughout a company. Data that is available and shared builds strong relationships based on trust; however, creating effective reports demands attention to several details.
3 tips for impactful reports for stakeholders
The abundance of data a business produces is not enough for stakeholders to obtain the facts and details they need to make informed decisions. Reports need to be planned and consider the interests of each type of stakeholder. These three points serve as guides for the initial process of developing reports:
- Establish frequency of reports: Discuss each stakeholder's expectations in terms of when they want to receive reports and updates. This includes disclosing when the data will be available and not promising reports that will not provide the expected information.
- Attune reports to stakeholder interests: Along with timeframe expectations, it is important to understand what each stakeholder wants to know and what they need to know for their particular roles. Do not create reports with excess data. Respect stakeholders' time to give them concise breakdowns with useful updates.
- Define the metrics to use: Stakeholder interests are the goal of a particular report, and it is essential to understand which metrics will provide the necessary information. This demonstrates competence and trust that stakeholders will see data that reflects the actual performance of a business or department within the company.
5 best practices to create an effective report to a stakeholder
Regardless of the stakeholder you are writing to and their interests, there are general best practices to follow that are applicable for reporting to any stakeholder. These points will ensure the correct information is received and that it provides the desired value. An added benefit of these approaches is an improved relationship between stakeholders and those creating the reports.
- Transparency: Reports to stakeholders is a step toward creating transparency; however, it is essential to commit to showing everything and making it available upon request.
- Demonstrate results: Writing and talking about achievements and goals is helpful to a point, but then stakeholders want to see what a team or business has done. Even small results are better than none, so include specific examples of what is ready.
- Open data: To affirm a commitment to transparency, businesses can open their data to stakeholders without hiding it behind layers of access. Of course, sensitive data requires protection, but information about processes and teams can be shared openly among stakeholders.
- Use stakeholder reporting software: Automated tools can reduce the time required to compile reports to ensure time remains for strategic tasks. These instruments also provide for accurate information gathering.
- Give stakeholders a way to see and monitor: Automated data collection platforms and AI-powered reports allow stakeholders to receive regular updates without meetings and presentations. When they have constant access to the information they need, stakeholders will feel trusted.
The last two practices have become more accessible in recent years and deserve special attention due to the ways in which they change the reporting landscape.
Use reporting software for better reports
Teams use many tools in their work, from messengers to task management platforms, coding instruments, and more. All of these activities create an incredible amount of data that act as digital footprints of an individual's or a team's performance. On the one hand, this presents an opportunity to create transparent stakeholder reports, while on the other, it is a challenge to collect the information from various sources.
Fortunately, AI-powered data collection, together with state-of-the-art platforms, makes it possible to offer constant updates that businesses can use to create reports. Furthermore, those responsible for the reports do not need to spend unnecessary time searching for information or creating tables. Reporting software automatically compiles and creates the reports.
An added advantage of reporting software is that it supports the best practices and tips mentioned above. For example, certain software allows stakeholders access to the data they need 24/7 without waiting to receive reports. This feature is especially useful for companies with a global workforce, given that time differences can create delays in delivering and receiving information. Certain software offers stakeholders the option to produce short updates without reading lots of text. AI-powered summarizers and assistants respond to questions about specific metrics and projects.
Build transparency through stakeholder reports
The stakeholders this article focuses on, and which were defined at the beginning, can all benefit from reporting software and AI data collection:
- Investors receive updates on margins and predictions based on objective facts.
- CEOs and founders can see their company in numbers to make accurate strategic plans for spending and investment.
- The CTO can observe coding activities and notice signals on poor and high performance without micromanaging developers.
- The HR department benefits from behavior analysis that helps prevent burnout and create a positive working environment.
- Middle managers receive the information they need on their projects without unnecessary communication and delays.
Agile reports for stakeholders deliver more than data to decision-makers. The updates they provide demonstrate a commitment to transparency and data-driven growth. Furthermore, they save time and allow stakeholders to focus their attention on other tasks apart from collecting and creating reports.