Weekly Wonder: Creating Impactful Executive Summaries: Communicating CUG Success

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Hi CUG members,

Your user group is doing real work: helping teams adopt Atlassian tools, sharing best practices, and unblocking problems that slow people down. But if executives only see “we held three meetings,” they’ll miss the real impact.

An executive summary is your chance to translate CUG activity into business outcomes: adoption, productivity, governance, and employee engagement. Done well, it can:

• Strengthen or secure executive sponsorship

• Protect time and budget for your group

• Position your CUG as a strategic asset, not a “nice-to-have”

Below are 5 practical tips to create executive summaries that are concise, convincing, and tailored to the leaders you support, along with examples you can adapt right away.

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1) Start With Outcomes, Not Activities

Executives care most about results: what changed in the business because your CUG exists. Open your summary with 3–5 outcome-based bullets that map directly to their goals (e.g., adoption, productivity, risk, cost).

How to frame it:
Replace “We ran 2 meetings this quarter” with “Our CUG helped reduce onboarding time for new teams by 30%.” Lead with outcomes, then briefly show how the CUG contributed.

Examples you can adapt:

• Adoption & engagement

  • “CUG-led Jira onboarding sessions increased active Jira users by 18% in 90 days across Product & Engineering.”

  • Productivity & time savings

  • “Standardized Jira dashboards from the CUG reduced weekly status-report prep time by ~2 hours per team.”

  • Governance & risk reduction

  • “Tool sprawl decreased: 4 teams migrated project tracking from spreadsheets to Jira after CUG-guided working sessions.”

Use numbers where you can - even rough but honest estimates (e.g., “~20%”) are better than none.

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2) Use a Simple Before/After Story With 3–5 Metrics

Executives process information quickly when it’s structured as: Problem → Action → Result. Pair this with a small set of metrics to make the impact undeniable.

How to frame it:
In 4–6 sentences or one small table, choose one strong story that represents your CUG’s value.

Example format:

Before: Teams tracked work in separate spreadsheets and personal boards. Status updates to leadership were inconsistent and time-consuming.

CUG Action: The CUG ran two Jira fundamentals sessions, shared a “standard project template,” and offered office hours to help teams migrate.

After (90 days):

• 9 project teams now use the standard Jira workflow

• Average project status prep time dropped from 90 to 30 minutes

• Executives get live status via shared dashboards instead of static slide decks

Metric ideas to include:

• Participation metrics

  • Number of attendees or teams represented at CUG sessions

  • Number of products covered (e.g., Jira, Confluence, JSM)

• Adoption & usage metrics

  • Active users, page views, or tickets created before vs. after CUG initiatives

  • Number of teams using new standards or templates introduced by the CUG

• Outcome metrics

  • Time saved on reporting, onboarding, or recurring processes

  • Reduced number of duplicate tools or shadow processes

Even if your data isn’t perfect, directional metrics + a clear story are very persuasive for executives.

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3) Elevate Voices From the Field With Short Quotes

Data shows the “what”; quotes show the human impact. Adding 2–3 short quotes from practitioners or managers helps executives feel the value of your CUG. Keep quotes brief, specific, and tied to outcomes.

How to frame it:
Create a small “Voices from the organization” section with 1–3 bullet quotes.

Examples you can adapt:

• From a team lead:

  • “After adopting the Jira workflow the CUG shared, we consolidated three tracking tools into one and cut our standup time in half.”

• From a new user:

  • “I was hesitant to switch from spreadsheets, but the CUG’s demo and office hours made the transition to Jira painless.”

• From a manager:

  • “Our Confluence space was a mess. The CUG’s templates finally gave my team a consistent structure for documentation.”

You can also spotlight cross-functional collaboration:

• “The CUG helped our HR and IT teams build a shared Jira Service Management queue so new hires are set up on day one.”

Keep attribution as light as your culture requires (“Senior Engineering Manager,” “Team Lead, Finance Ops”) and ensure people are comfortable being quoted.

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Tip 4: Make a Clear Ask Aligned to Executive Priorities

A strong executive summary doesn’t just recap the past; it sets up what’s needed next. Tie your ask directly to things executives already care about (e.g., adoption, governance, cost savings, employee experience).

How to frame it:
End with a short “What we’re proposing next” section:

“To scale these results, we recommend…”

Then list 1–3 concrete asks.

Examples you can adapt:

• Time & visibility

  • “Add a 5-minute CUG update to the quarterly IT leadership meeting to highlight adoption metrics and upcoming initiatives.”

• Resources & support

  • “Allocate 2 hours/month of admin time for Jira/Confluence configuration that supports CUG-led standards.”

• Strategic alignment

  • “Support a pilot where one business unit fully adopts CUG-recommended configurations, so we can measure and replicate success.”

Executives are more likely to say “yes” when the ask is small, specific, and clearly mapped to what they already want to achieve.

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Tip 5: Design for Skimmability – 1 Page, 5 Minutes

Most executives will scan your summary in a few minutes. Your job is to make the main points obvious at a glance, whether the summary is a slide, email, or Confluence page.

How to frame it:

• Keep it to 1 page or 1 slide when possible

• Use clear headings, bullets, and bolding for key numbers

• Place the headline outcomes at the top, with supporting detail below

Examples of simple structures:

• For email:

  • Subject: “Q1 CUG Impact Summary – Adoption & Time Savings Highlights”

  • Body outline:

    1. 3 bullet outcomes at the top

    2. 1 short before/after story with metrics

    3. 2–3 quotes

    4. 1–2 clear asks

• For a slide:

  • Top: Title + 3 metrics in large font (e.g., “+18% Jira adoption,” “2 hrs/week saved in reporting,” “9 teams standardized”)

  • Middle: One short visual (e.g., simple bar chart or before/after table)

  • Bottom: “What’s next” asks and timelines

• For a Confluence page:

  • Use sections: Outcomes, Highlights from this quarter, Quotes from the field, What we’re doing next, How leaders can support

  • Add labels (e.g., cug, executive-summary, atlassian-adoption) so others can find and reuse your format

The simpler your structure, the more likely your executive will read, remember, and act on it.

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Your CUG is already driving real value: adoption, governance, faster decisions, and better collaboration. An impactful executive summary doesn’t exaggerate that, it simply makes it visible in the language leaders care about.

As a next step, consider:

• Take your last quarter’s CUG notes and rewrite them into a 1-page executive summary using the five tips above.

• Share it with your CUG leadership team and refine it together.

• Use that version as your template for future updates.

Over time, these summaries can build a track record that helps you secure sponsorship, expand your impact, and make your CUG an essential part of your organization’s Atlassian strategy.

Here are some resources you can use to find examples, metrics, and ideas that strengthen your executive summaries:

• Atlassian Customer Stories (for impact examples & language)

• Atlassian Team Playbook (for structure & facilitation ideas)

• Atlassian University (for training & adoption support)