The Upstream Test

Whether you're leaving a voicemail as a salesperson or creating brochures and use cases, remember that there's always a second audience for everything you create. It's the person you're talking to and the next person up from them.

At a minimum, your message has to be simple and compelling enough that they can carry it, ideally without notes, to the next person up the line. Their manager, supervisor, VP. It has to survive that test. And it has to survive the safety test underneath it: how do I know it's safe for me to pass this along to my boss in the first place?

You're always talking to two people, the one at one level and the one above. Talk only to the person above, and the reader will say there's nothing here for them. Talk only to the reader, and forget they have to pass it on, and you end up with facts and figures that don't cover what their manager will want to know. They won't do it well, and they won't do it at all.

There are always two audiences: the obvious one, and the next one up the line.