---
name: email-drafting
description: "Draft professional, audience-aware emails for any purpose."
whenToUse: "User asks to write/draft an email"
---

# Skill: Email Drafting

## Description
Draft professional, audience-aware emails for any purpose — status updates, leadership communications, cross-team requests, follow-ups, escalations. Adapted for Microsoft PM context with Chinese/English bilingual support.

## When to Use
- User asks to write/draft an email
- User says "帮我写封邮件" or "draft an email"
- User wants to reply to an email and needs help with wording
- User needs to escalate, follow up, or request something via email

## Workflow

### 1. Understand the Context
Before drafting, clarify:
- **Audience**: Who is receiving? (skip-level leader, peer PM, engineer, external partner)
- **Purpose**: What action do you want? (inform, request, escalate, follow up)
- **Tone**: Formal? Casual? Urgent?
- **Language**: English? Chinese? Mixed?

### 2. Structure by Purpose

#### Status Update / FYI
```
Subject: [Topic] — [Key takeaway in 5 words]

Hi [Name],

[1 sentence context — why you're writing]

Key updates:
• [Update 1 with metric/impact]
• [Update 2 with metric/impact]
• [Update 3 with metric/impact]

Next steps: [What happens next, who owns it]

[Closing]
```

#### Request / Ask
```
Subject: [Action Needed] — [Specific request]

Hi [Name],

[1 sentence context]
[1 sentence why this matters]

Ask: [Clear, specific request]
Timeline: [When you need it by]

[Why this is important to them / what's in it for them]

Thanks,
```

#### Escalation
```
Subject: [Urgent/Priority] — [Issue] impacting [scope]

Hi [Name],

Issue: [What's happening, since when]
Impact: [Quantified impact — users affected, SLA at risk, revenue impact]
Root cause: [Known/investigating]
What we need: [Specific ask with timeline]
Mitigation: [What we're doing in the meantime]
```

#### Follow-up (Gentle Nudge)
```
Subject: Re: [Original subject]

Hi [Name],

Just circling back on [topic] from [date/meeting].
[Brief reminder of what was discussed/agreed]

Could you [specific action] by [date]?

Happy to discuss if there are any blockers.
```

### 3. Style Rules
- **Subject lines**: Front-load the key info. No vague subjects like "Quick question"
- **Length**: Shorter is better. If > 5 paragraphs, it should be a doc
- **Action items**: Bold or bullet them. Don't bury asks in paragraphs
- **CC etiquette**: Only CC people who need to know, not everyone
- **Chinese/English mix**: Use English for technical terms, Chinese for narrative when writing to Chinese colleagues
- **Avoid**: "As per my last email", "Please advise", "Hope this email finds you well"

### 4. Sending
- Use `outlook_compose_email` for plain text
- Use Outlook REST API for emails with attachments (see email-with-attachment skill)
- **Always show draft to user before sending** (send confirmation gate)

## Templates for Common Scenarios

### Weekly Team Update (Chinese)
```
Subject: [Team Name] 周报 — W[XX]

Hi all,

本周进展：
• [重要里程碑/发布]
• [关键指标变化]

下周计划：
• [计划1]
• [计划2]

风险/阻塞：
• [如有]

Thanks,
```

### Cross-team Request (English)
```
Subject: [Request] — Need [X] support for [project] by [date]

Hi [Name],

We're working on [project/feature] which [brief context].
To unblock [specific next step], we need your team's help with:

1. [Specific ask]
2. [Specific ask]

Timeline: Ideally by [date] to meet our [milestone].

Happy to set up a quick sync if helpful. Let me know!
```
