BLUF - "bottom line up front"
State the crux of your message in the first line.
This is the essence of BLUF.
Ever been stuck in a conversation, but you're mentally a million miles away on a beach somewhere, the sun is shining, the weather is good? You might go surfing later. Maybe not.
Snapping back to reality, you realize someone's blabbing on and you have no idea what they're saying.
This is the importance of stating the bottom line up front.
To me, it feels counterintuitive. My head says to me: "but if you start with the final point, why would they listen to the rest?"
In reality, it helps the person you're speaking to focus their attention on what you're saying, and why you're saying it. It stops their mind from traveling to far away sunny beaches.
It shows a high level of respect for their time.
And it translates particularly well to text communication.
Let's take a look at an example. Imagine you've made a miscalculation and run out of budget on a project, and you need to let your client know.
Email without BLUF
Hi Sarah,
I hope you’re well. We’ve been working hard on the project, and it’s coming along nicely. However, there’s been a slight issue that I wanted to discuss with you. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances, we’ve had to allocate more resources to certain areas than we initially planned. This has led to an overrun in our budget. I wanted to let you know about this as soon as possible so that we can discuss how to move forward.
Best regards,
Ben
Now, compare that with the BLUF version:
Email with BLUF
Hi Sarah,
We're out of budget.
We’ve been working hard on the project, and it’s coming along nicely, but we had to allocate more resources than planned, which led to the budget overrun. I take full responsibility and would like to talk to you about getting the project back on track.
Would 1h on Mon, Tue, and Wed any time between 8 and 11 AM work for you? If not, let me know what suits.
Best regards,
Ben