How to Write an Executive Memo That Gets Read

Takeaway: An executive reads for the decision, not the journey, so a memo that gets read states its point in the first line, backs it with a tight and logically grouped argument, and makes clear exactly what it's asking the reader to do.

Writing is one of the highest-leverage skills a chief of staff has. Much of your influence travels through documents: the brief that frames a decision, the memo that proposes a change, the summary that keeps a leadership team aligned. If those documents are clear, they save the reader time and move decisions forward. If they're not, they get skimmed, misread, or quietly ignored, and your good thinking dies on the page.

The problem is that most business writing is built for the writer, not the reader. It walks through the analysis in the order it was done, saves the conclusion for the end, and buries the ask. An executive reading twenty documents a day can't afford that. This is a guide to writing memos that respect a busy reader and get acted on.

Lead With the Bottom Line

The most important rule is also the most violated: put the point first.

This principle has a formal military lineage. The phrase "bottom line up front," or BLUF, was codified in U.S. Army writing standards, which require correspondence to state its purpose in the first sentence or paragraph. The Army's guidance is blunt about why: the greatest weakness in ineffective writing is that it doesn't quickly transmit a focused message, so Army writing is action-oriented and tells the reader the purpose up front (Army Regulation 25-50). The military adopted this for a practical reason: when decisions are time-sensitive, the reader needs to know the conclusion before the supporting detail, not after.

The same is true in business. Open your memo with the answer. If you're recommending a decision, state the recommendation in the first line. If you're asking for a resource, ask in the first line. Everything after that is support for a point the reader already has. A reader who agrees can stop early; a reader who wants the reasoning can keep going. Either way, you have respected their time.

Structure the Argument, Do Not Just List It

Leading with the answer only works if what follows is organized. A memo that opens with a recommendation and then dumps ten unsorted facts isn't much better than one that buries the point.

The most durable guide here is the Minto Pyramid Principle, developed by Barbara Minto, the first female MBA McKinsey hired, who noticed while editing the firm's reports that the clearest ones always organized ideas into a pyramid (McKinsey). The structure is simple: start with the single main point at the top, support it with a small number of grouped arguments beneath, and support each of those with evidence. Crucially, the supporting groups should be what Minto called MECE, mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, meaning they don't overlap and together they cover the whole case (The Minto Pyramid Principle).

In practice this means: after your bottom line, give the reader three or four reasons that support it, each distinct, and together adding up to the full argument. Group your evidence under those reasons rather than presenting it as a flat list. The reader can then hold the shape of your argument in their head, which is the difference between a memo that persuades and one that merely informs.

Write in Sentences, Not Bullets

For a real decision, prose beats slides. This is the Amazon argument, and it's worth taking seriously because the company built its culture around it. In his 2017 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos explained that Amazon banned slide presentations in favor of narratively structured six-page memos, because writing in full sentences forces clearer thinking than bullet points do. A good memo, he wrote, is written, rewritten, shared with colleagues for feedback, set aside, and edited again, and people routinely underestimate the effort, since a strong six-pager can take a week or more (Amazon 2017 Letter to Shareholders).

The insight is that bullet points let you hide fuzzy thinking. You can list "improve onboarding" as a bullet and never explain how or why. A full sentence forces you to connect the ideas, which exposes the gaps in your logic to yourself before it reaches the reader. You don't need to mandate six pages. The transferable habit is to draft real prose for anything that matters, and to treat the writing itself as thinking rather than as packaging for thinking already finished.

A Reusable Structure

Most executive memos fit a simple shape. Adapt it, but start here:

1. The bottom line. One or two sentences stating your recommendation or the decision you're asking for. If the reader stops here, they still know the point.
2. The ask. Say exactly what you want from the reader: a decision, an approval, a resource, a piece of input. Ambiguity about the ask is why many memos generate no action.
3. The context. A short paragraph on the situation and why this matters now. Just enough for a reader who isn't living in the detail. Resist the urge to relitigate the whole history.
4. The reasoning. Your three or four grouped arguments, in pyramid form, with the evidence under each. This is the body.
5. The options and trade-offs. If there's a real decision, lay out the alternatives you considered and why you landed where you did. Showing the options you rejected builds far more trust than pretending there was only one path.
6. Next steps. Who does what by when if the recommendation is accepted.

The order matters. Notice that the ask and the answer come first, and the reasoning that produced them comes later. That's the inversion most writers resist and most readers need.

Edit Ruthlessly for the Reader

A first draft is for you. The final draft is for the reader, and the gap between them is editing.

Cut every sentence that doesn't earn its place. Replace jargon with plain words. Break long paragraphs into shorter ones. Delete the throat-clearing at the start of paragraphs and get to the substance. Read it once asking a single question: if the reader gave this thirty seconds, would they get the point? If the answer is no, the top of the memo isn't doing its job.

One more discipline: write for the specific person who will read it. A memo to a CFO leads with different evidence than the same argument aimed at a head of product. Knowing what your one reader cares about, and what they will object to, lets you address it before they raise it. That's the quiet craft of the chief of staff's writing, and it's why the same underlying analysis can succeed as one memo and fail as another.

FAQ

What does BLUF mean and where did it come from? BLUF stands for bottom line up front, the practice of stating your main point or request in the first sentence or paragraph. It was formalized in U.S. Army correspondence standards, which require writing to be action-oriented and to give the reader the purpose immediately, because the biggest weakness in weak writing is failing to transmit a focused message quickly.

Why does Amazon use written memos instead of slide decks? Amazon replaced slides with narratively structured memos because full sentences force clearer thinking than bullet points, which can hide vague reasoning. Meetings open with everyone reading the memo silently before discussing it. Jeff Bezos has noted that a strong six-page memo can take a week or more to write, because it's drafted, shared, and repeatedly edited.

What is the Minto Pyramid Principle? It's a structure for clear writing developed by Barbara Minto at McKinsey. You lead with the single main point, support it with a small number of grouped arguments, and support each argument with evidence. The supporting groups should be MECE, meaning they don't overlap and together cover the whole case, so the reader can follow the logic easily.

How long should an executive memo be? As short as the decision allows. Amazon caps its narratives at six pages, but many memos should be one or two. Length isn't thoroughness; a tight one-pager that states the ask and the reasoning clearly beats a sprawling document that makes the reader hunt for the point. Cut anything that doesn't move the decision forward.

How do I write an executive memo or one-pager for a CEO? Lead with the recommendation in the first line, so a reader who agrees can stop there. Follow it with a clear ask that names exactly what you want decided or approved, then three or four grouped reasons that support the recommendation without overlapping, each carrying its evidence. Close with next steps and owners. Write in full sentences rather than bullets, and cut anything that doesn't move the decision forward.

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If you want a template to work from, our Executive Memo Toolkit includes a fill-in structure with the bottom-line-up-front opening, a pyramid outline for the argument, and a short before-and-after example. Join The Brief to download it and get future operator playbooks as they publish.