How_to_Use_This_Template
📖 How to use this template
Most projects do not fail because the work was wrong, they fail because someone found out too late. This template is a communication plan you can run, pre-filled with example content across six phases. Replace it with yours.
- Duplicate this project into your own organization (dropdown next to the project name, then
Duplicate) - Delete the sample assignees. Open the List view, select all, and clear assignees. Then reassign to your own team.
- Shift the dates. All tasks are dated across a six-month project. Select the tasks and drag them in Timeline view to match your real schedule.
- Set your approvers. Project settings has three approval categories waiting for you. See the Approvals section below.
- Do Phase 1 properly. It is tempting to skip to sending things. Do not. Phases 2 to 6 only work if the goals and the owner are clear.
- Fill in the Table view. That is where the plan actually lives.
The six phases
Phase 1 · Set Up the Plan — Goals, scope, owner, escalation path. Nothing gets sent until these exist.
Phase 2 · Map Audiences and Stakeholders — Who is affected, who has influence, and what each group actually wants to know. Ask them. Do not guess.
Phase 3 · Write the Key Messages — One core message, then tailored versions per audience. Same truth, different emphasis.
Phase 4 · Pick Channels and Set the Cadence — Match the channel to the audience, lock the meeting rhythm, and build the communication matrix.
Phase 5 · Run the Communications — The live, repeating work. This is where most plans quietly die.
Phase 6 · Measure and Improve — Check whether anyone is reading. Cut what they are not.
The Table view is the communication matrix
Switch to Table view and you get the classic who / what / when / where grid, one row per communication:
| Column | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Task | What is being communicated |
| Assignee | Who owns sending it |
| Audience | Who receives it (can pick more than one) |
| Channel | Where it goes: email, chat, meeting, town hall, newsletter, board, doc, 1:1 |
| Frequency | One-time, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, as needed |
| Message Type | Planning, status update, announcement, decision request, escalation, feedback request, report |
| Due | When it is expected |
Group the table by Audience to check nobody is over-messaged. Group by Channel to spot the channel doing all the work. Group by Assignee to find the one person carrying every update.
Approvals
Nothing sensitive should go out on one person's judgment. This template uses Quire's built-in approval workflow rather than a tick box, so every sign-off leaves a record of who asked, who decided, and what changed.
Three categories are set up:
| Category | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Sponsor Sign-off | Goals, the core message, the communication matrix, the steering pack |
| Editorial Review | Anything customer-facing: release notes, kickoff announcements, milestone posts |
| Legal and Compliance | Escalation rules, holding statements, anything with regulatory exposure |
How to use it. Open a task, click Request approval, pick the category. The approver gets Approve, Reject, or Request changes. Every action can carry a comment, and it lands in the task's activity feed.
Rosters are open by default, meaning anyone on the project can request or approve. Go to project settings and set real approvers per category before you run this for real. Leaving them open is fine for a small team and a bad idea for anything regulated.
The Needs Sign-off tag marks tasks that will need approval later, before anyone has actually opened a request. Filter by it to see your upcoming approval load. Once a task is in flight, request the approval and let the workflow carry it.
Three tasks in Phase 1 are pre-loaded so you can see all three states: one approved, one awaiting, one with changes requested.
Statuses
Six statuses instead of just to-do and done, because a draft and a sent message are not the same thing:
- To-do — not started
- Drafting — being written
- In Review — with a reviewer or awaiting approval
- Approved — cleared to send
- Blocked — waiting on someone or something
- Completed — sent or published
Tags
- Internal / External — a quick split for review rigor
- Recurring — repeats on a schedule
- Exec Visibility — leadership sees this
- Needs Sign-off — will need an approval request before it ships
- Crisis Ready — pre-written for when things go wrong
The two sublists
Recurring Rhythm — every communication that repeats. Check it weekly. If items here keep slipping, your cadence is too ambitious. Cut one.
Customer and External Facing — everything that leaves the building. These go through Editorial Review.
Five things that go wrong
Everyone is on every update. People stop reading when half of what they get does not apply to them. Trim the audience list, not the message.
The plan has no owner. A plan owned by "the team" is owned by nobody. Name one person and a back-up.
Meetings replace writing. If the same status is verbally repeated in three meetings, write it once and cancel two.
Bad news waits for the next scheduled update. It should not. Set a rule in Phase 1: material bad news goes out within 24 hours, even if the answer is "we do not know yet."
Nobody checks whether it works. Phase 6 exists for this. A 15% open rate is not apathy, it is usually the wrong channel.
Adapting it
- Small project, under 5 people? Delete Phases 2 and 4, keep one weekly update, and move on.
- Regulated industry? Route everything external through Legal and Compliance, and set an explicit approver roster so it cannot be skipped.
- Distributed team across time zones? Push more into written updates on the board and fewer live meetings. Async first.
- Crisis or incident comms? Filter by the Crisis Ready tag. Those tasks are your starting pack.
Delete this document once your plan is set up, or keep it as onboarding for whoever takes over.