Email Structure

Understand the purpose of every email, for example:

Educate or inform
Make a request
Introduction
Respond

Before sending, review for purpose alignment. If not, adjust the message.

Key elements for good email:

Subject line: keep email from getting deleted
Introduction: create context, build trust, remind who you are
Message: bulk of the email
Call to action: request, the last part of the body
Signature: provide contact information, your brand

Adjust the From name and email address, for example chengdol <email address> , this can be done through Send email as in Gmail settings.

The Signature helps people understand your skill set, value proposition, may include:

your name
tagline: directly under your name, a few words, can be your title.
phone, address, links

To, CC and BCC

To: directly talk to a person.
CC: who can hear the conversation, don’t have to act on it.
BCC: blind from others, only the person put you in BCC field knows you are listening, no one else know you are on recipient list, fine to reply to sender but not reply all.

Communicating Better

Visuals may help, but should not make it distracting, bold or highlighting is good to make response stand out.

When many people involved, use Reply All, unless you intend to start a side conversation. Move to Reply, for example:

1 2	Thank again for the introduction, I'll move this conversation with xx to another thread so we don't clutter your inbox.

Vacation Responder

Set out-of-office auto reply, for example, at a conference, on leave. A good example:

1
2
3

I’m currently consumed with a project that is taking almost all of my time. If
you are emailing me with a product or support question, please email Liz.
Otherwise, I will try to respond within 24 hours.

Send Report

This is usually for project progress report weekly to stakeholders. Draft them in spreadsheet and copy to email.

There are 5 stages for a project (Not Started, In Progress, Complete):

Concept Exit
Design & Planning
Execution/Implementation
Preview
GA

You can also point out weekly:

Highlights
Lowlights

The risk status of milestone for different teams or components:

On Track(green): good, healthy
At Risk(amber): signal caution
Off Track(red): unlikely to be successful or correct

You can also add Next Steps and ETA, etc.

There is an example of the table(generated from https://tableconvert.com/markdown-generator), for status, using color to highlights:

Overall Risk Status: ON TRACK
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Workstreams	Exit Date	Weekly Updates	Owner(s)	Open Risks/Mitigation	Status
…	…	…	…	…	ON TRACK
Key Decisions made this week:

Schedule Send

This feature is helpful.

Proofread

purpose aligned
body
distraction
call to action is clear
spelling and grammar
proper audience
any attachment

When the stakes are high, and your email can have a major impact on the outcome, it can pay to invest your time in proper proofreading, you can ask LLM to help proofread.

Demos

You can also generate draft or template from bard or charGPT, with the input from you for your purpose.

The First Communication

## subject
Reaching out from Twitter

## introduction
Hi Chris, I have been following you on Twitter for a while, and have interacted
a little with you over the last few weeks. I wanted to bring the conversation
over to email.

## message body

## call to action
Can we get on a call in the next week or so? I am open all day Thursday, just
let me know what works for you.

## signature

Virtual Introduction

## subject
Virtual introduction: Matt and Jesse

## introduction
Hi Matt and Jesse, as per our previous conversations I wanted to introduce you
to one another.

## message
Matt, I’ve known Jesse for a few years and know him to be a very clever
developer, and a loyal friend. I know he can help you with some of the coding
challenges you are facing right now.

Jesse, Matt is my friend and colleague, and can better explain his challenges
than I can, but I think you are the right person for him to talk to.

## call to action
I hope you two can get together soon. I’ll let you take it from here.

## signature

Information Heavy

Follow-up on job search information

Hi Laurie, you had asked for information to help you with your job search
Thursday morning when we spoke.

Below are a few of my favorite blog posts which I think are relevant to where
you are, based on our conversation. I am happy to talk about any of this with
you, over email or on a call. Just let me know what works best for you.

## some links here

I have been blogging for over 14 years, and have plenty to share, but I thought
these would be the most interesting and meaningful to you.

I would love to jump on a call this week to talk about your next steps. Are you
available for a call Friday before 2?

## signature

Respond to Questions

Hi Jim, thank you for your thoughtful email. You have a lot of questions and
ideas in there. Please scroll down and see my comments in `yellow`.

## copy the original email and answer right after each question and highlight
## with yellow

Negative Situation

Team performance

Mike, I promised you an email follow-up from our conversation this morning. I
know this is an uncomfortable conversation and I appreciate your willingness to
address this with me.

There are two issues we need to address.

Project Foo meeting this morning

Hi Carlos, let me first apologize for how the meeting went this afternoon. I
could tell that you were uncomfortable. I wanted to share my perspective on what
was happening.

While I knew there was a chance your Project Foo was going to be killed, I was
not aware of the reasons stated in the meeting. I have seen what you and your
team have done with Project Foo and I have been very impressed.

Seek Help

Hi xx,
Hope you are doing well!

We have started the work related to ... 
## body

At this point it is not clear for us how to proceed ...
Can you please provide guidance, or point us to someone who can assist?

Appreciate your help!