As engineering leaders, balancing responsibilities is a given, but one aspect of the job that often takes on a life of its own is effective reporting.
Because it’s not just about keeping everyone updated—it’s about making sure your team’s impact is clearly visible within the organization. With the ongoing changes in tech, changing team structures, expectations, and organizational shifts, the way you communicate progress, challenges, and successes can really shape how your engineering team is viewed at large within the organization.
It’s not as simple as just sharing the information; it’s ensuring the right message reaches the right people in a way that sticks and leaves a lasting impression.
So, why not take it a step further and ensure your reporting not only meets expectations but also reinforces confidence within your organization that your engineering team is on the right track?
Therefore, understanding these dynamics and executing them well is the key to ensuring that you’re reporting correctly, showcasing your engineering team in a positive light and checking all the boxes.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through all the essential ins and outs of reporting the right way!
So keep reading to uncover these insights.
The first major step is understanding who you’re reporting to. As we all know, the data that resonates with one audience might not be relevant to another, but this often gets lost in translation when we’re looking at so much insightful data. So it’s crucial to have a nuanced approach before you even start thinking about your reporting structure.
With that in mind, let’s address this crucial first step.
Understanding the Audience: Who Are You Reporting To?
To make your reports truly effective, tailor your reports or conversations based on who you’re speaking to. Because let’s face it: not everyone cares about the nitty-gritty details of your project or quarter by quarter.
Imagine this: You're giving a presentation. Your CEO is in the room, along with your team lead and a potential investor. Each person wants something different from you. The CEO is looking for the big picture, the team lead needs operational updates, and the investor is focused on return on investment. One size definitely doesn’t fit all here.
Different People, Different Needs
Your CTO or CEO is more interested in the "why" than the "how." They want to know how your work fits into the company’s overall strategy. Focus on the impact of your project, not the specific tasks.
Your direct manager wants to know what's going on right now. They're concerned with project timelines, potential roadblocks, and how you're handling them. Here’s your cue to be specific and transparent.
Board members and C-level executives care about results. They want to see how your work is impacting revenue, customer satisfaction, or other key metrics. This is where you keep it concise and focused on the bottom line.
When talking to your team, dive into the details. Share metrics, discuss challenges, and brainstorm solutions together. But remember to connect your work back to the bigger picture.
By tailoring your reports to your audience, you'll not only save time but also increase your credibility. People appreciate it when you show that you understand their perspective.
Now, with these basics in mind, let's delve into the metrics that resonate with senior leadership and ways that empower you to report the right way.
How to Report the Right Way?
Select the Right Metrics
As engineering leaders, we constantly find ourselves in between two important things: making sure our engineering team is running efficiently and aligning the work with the broader goals of the business. It’s a bit of a balancing act, and the metrics we choose to report on should reflect both sides of this equation.
Efficiency metrics are great for showing how smoothly things are running. They give a clear picture of whether our processes are working well and if our team is staying productive.
- One key metric that you need to keep an eye on is Cycle Time. Tracking this metric provides a good sense of how productive the team is. If the cycle time is short, it indicates that the team is moving quickly and getting things done without unnecessary delays. This is the kind of thing leadership notices—they see that resources are being used effectively and that tasks are staying on track. However, if the cycle time starts to stretch out, it might raise some concerns. It could suggest that your engineering team is encountering blockers, prompting leadership to ask questions.
- Deployment Frequency is another important metric. A high deployment frequency usually signals to leadership that the CI/CD pipeline is solid and that the team is agile enough to roll out updates and fixes quickly. This is a positive indicator—it shows that the team can adapt to changes and keep things moving forward. On the other hand, if deployment frequency drops, it could cause concern. Leadership might worry that the team is facing obstacles or that the release process isn’t as well-planned as it should be, which could impact their confidence in the team’s ability to deliver consistently.
But efficiency alone isn’t enough. We also need to make sure that all this productive energy is being channeled in the right direction—towards the goals that matter to the business.
That’s where alignment metrics come in. They help us demonstrate that our work is not just efficient but also strategically valuable.
- Investment in Key Projects: Highlighting where resources are being allocated demonstrates alignment with the company’s top priorities. Leadership appreciates seeing that the team is focusing on projects that really matter to the business.
- Predictability: This metric is all about how reliably the team meets sprint goals and delivery deadlines. Consistently delivering on time builds trust and gives leadership confidence that they can rely on the team, especially when timing is crucial for things like product launches or customer commitments.
One way to gauge whether you’ve hit that balance with your metrics is by looking at how leadership responds. When the metrics resonate, you’ll usually see them engaging more—asking questions, starting discussions, and digging deeper into the data. That’s a good sign that what you’re reporting is relevant and meaningful to them.
On the other hand, if you’re not getting much of a response, it could be a signal that the metrics might not be hitting the mark. Maybe the data is too technical, or perhaps it’s not directly connected to the business concerns that leadership is focused on. In those cases, it might be worth rethinking which metrics you’re highlighting and how you’re presenting them, to ensure they’re truly aligned with what leadership cares about.
Welcome Questions During Presentations
When presenting metrics, it’s important to be ready for questions that get intricate with the data. This is often where the real value of the meeting comes to light, as it shows that the audience is engaged and taking the information seriously. For example, if you’ve highlighted an improvement in lead time, be prepared to explain what specifically led to that improvement. Was it a change in process, a new tool, or perhaps better team collaboration?
And more importantly, how will this positive trend impact future product deliveries?
Answering these kinds of questions effectively not only reinforces the credibility of your data but also helps connect the dots between the metrics and the broader business goals. It shows that you’re not just presenting numbers—you’re thinking ahead and understanding the implications for the team and the company.
Now, let’s talk about how you can present this data in a way that resonates with senior leadership!
Craft Clear and Concise Reports
Clarity and brevity are crucial when it comes to reporting.
Early on, it’s easy to get so caught up in the details that your reports end up being overly long. But over time, you learn that no one really has the time to sift through pages of information to find the key points. That's why keeping things clear and to the point becomes a priority.
The process typically starts with identifying the most important takeaways. What does your audience need to know? Once you’ve pinpointed the key points, structure your report so these stand out—whether through bullet points, headers, or even a quick summary at the top.
When presenting data, it’s essential to focus on what it means, not just the numbers.
For instance, instead of simply stating, “Our team’s velocity increased by 10%,” it’s more effective to explain why that matters—perhaps it indicates that the team is becoming more efficient or that a recent process change is yielding positive results. Providing context makes the data more meaningful and relevant.
Visual and Verbal Communication
While we’re on this topic, different stakeholders have different preferences when it comes to how they receive information. Some people are visual thinkers—they’ll appreciate graphs, charts, or any kind of visual aid that helps them quickly grasp the data. Others might prefer a more narrative explanation that walks them through the details. Using both approaches can help ensure that your message gets across to everyone.
For example, you might show a graph of cycle time trends over the past quarter to visually highlight how efficiency has improved. Then, you could follow up with a narrative explanation that connects these improvements to concrete business outcomes, like getting key features to market faster. This way, you’re covering all your bases and making sure your communication is clear, impactful, and accessible to everyone involved.
How to Communicate Areas Where Things Are Going Wrong?
Nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, therefore, it’s natural to dread or be uncomfortable with reporting the areas that might not be going so well.
Therefore, first of all, you need to reaffirm this to yourself that no engineering team or a quarterly strategy is fool-proof and above the regular ups and downs of a bustling engineering team. You will not be able to match up to expectations all the time even if you go that extra mile every time. So, it’s important to acknowledge that things do go wrong from time to time—this is only a natural part of working with complex systems.
However, not everyone will understand the technical reasons behind these issues, so it’s crucial to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
For non-technical stakeholders, focus on the impact. For example, instead of saying, “A server failure caused downtime,” you might say, “Our customers experienced service interruptions, which could affect their satisfaction and retention.” This helps them understand the issue in terms that matter to them.
For technical stakeholders, while they may appreciate more detail, it’s still important to keep the explanation clear and focused. They might want to know the specifics, such as what caused the server failure, but it’s essential to balance technical details with an understanding of the broader impact.
After explaining the problem, it’s equally important to focus on the solution. Quickly outline the steps your engineering team is taking to fix the issue and prevent it from happening again, such as implementing better monitoring tools or revising the deployment process. This approach not only addresses the immediate concern but also reassures both technical and non-technical stakeholders that you are taking proactive measures to avoid future problems.
This leads us to our next point…
Avoid Technical Jargon
When you’re deep in your work, it’s easy to use technical jargon because you’re so connected to the details. Your passion for the work naturally comes through, and you want that to be reflected in your presentations. However, when communicating with non-technical stakeholders, certain terms or ways of explaining things might not always resonate.
The goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their technical background, understands the impact of what we’re doing. For example, instead of saying, “We reduced our Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) by 30%,”—which could confuse some people—you could say, “We’ve significantly improved our response times, so customers now experience fewer and shorter service interruptions.” This way, the message is clear, and the focus is on the business outcome—better service for customers.
It’s not about simplifying the information too much; it’s about translating technical achievements into language that everyone can relate to. Doing this makes your reports more accessible and ensures that the value of your team’s work is fully understood by all stakeholders.
Keep Senior Leadership in the Loop About Your Engineering Team’s Progress
It’s important for you and senior leadership to stay on top of what’s happening in within the active projects of an engineering team. However, if you wait until quarterly meetings to share updates with senior leadership, it can sometimes lead to surprises or uncertainty. That’s why it’s better to keep an active chain of communication about your engineering team’s progress, rather than just relying on those scheduled check-ins.
Regular updates help build trust and ensure there are no unexpected surprises.
To make this easier, using an engineering management platform (EMP) can really help. For example, a platform like Hatica gives you detailed data that keeps everyone informed.
Here’s how some of the key features (now enhanced in Hatica v3) that can be beneficial to CTOs, CEOs, and other senior leaders:
