Consolidating field and design feedback into a single executive review — what worked, what didn't.
Most rollups don't drive decisions
The default engineering rollup is a wall of green with three red items buried in the appendix. Everyone nods, nothing changes, and the same three reds show up next month. The rollup exists to reassure, not to decide.
A rollup that drives decisions has to do two uncomfortable things: force a rank order, and force a named owner with a next action dated to next week — not next quarter.
The format that stuck
For the SCADA and fiber design reviews, the format that finally moved decisions had four columns and no more:
- Issue — one line, plain language, no jargon.
- Impact — quantified in stations affected, schedule days at risk, or dollars.
- Owner — a single name, not a team.
- Next step by date — the concrete action to be reviewed at the next meeting.
What didn't work
Color-coded RAG status without a threshold definition. When 'yellow' means whatever the owner feels, the rollup is theater.
Rolling every functional org's slide into one deck. It produced a 40-slide artifact no one read; it hid the three items that actually needed a decision.
Attaching narrative memos to the rollup. If the story doesn't fit on one row, it belongs in a separate document with its own review.
The test
After the meeting, ask two questions. Did we make at least one decision that changed what someone will do this week? Do the owners in the room know exactly what they owe by the next review? If either answer is no, the rollup is a status broadcast, not a decision forum — and it should either be fixed or cancelled.