JournalStudio14 May 2026
The Friday note
One page, every Friday, written so a finance director can read it in two minutes. What goes in it, and what we leave out.
Margot HaleFounder, chief strategy officer · 3 min read
Every client gets a note from us on Friday afternoon. It has done more for our retention than any piece of work we have made.
Why a note
Agencies tend to report in decks: long, monthly and written to look busy. By the time a deck arrives, the decisions it describes are weeks old. Our clients told us they wanted something shorter and more frequent, that they could forward without editing.
What goes in it
The note has three parts, and never more than one page.
- What shipped. Every piece of work that went live this week, with a link.
- What it did. Against the one number we agreed in week two, not against vanity metrics.
- What we are changing. The decisions we made, including the ones that did not work, said plainly and first.
What we leave out
No charts that need explaining. No adjectives about the work. No surprises that should have been a phone call. If something has gone wrong, the client hears it from us before Friday, and the note records what we did about it.
Who writes it
The account’s strategist writes it, and a founder reads every one before it goes. It takes about forty minutes. Our clients say it takes them two to read, which is the point.
Margot Hale, Founder, chief strategy officer · 14 May 2026
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