One colour, read in two seconds.
The colour is not a mood. It is a request: act now, watch this, or leave us alone.
The colour is the output
Not the effort behind it. It answers one question: who acts next.
Red
A problem you cannot clear inside the team, with the decision you need named beside it.
Acts nextSomeone outside your team
Amber
A risk you are managing, carrying the date it clears or turns red. Without that date it is green in a warning colour.
Acts nextYou, until that date
Green
Proceeding as planned, with someone watching what could change that.
Acts nextNobody
Same facts, three different colours
Two of the three are defensible. What changes is who moves next.
The update
Red. The launch is at risk and I need a decision this week.
Two of eight features are blocked on a platform endpoint with no date. I have asked Sam twice; he cannot commit without his director, and I have them both Wednesday. What I need: a date by Friday, or your agreement to launch the cut-down versions.
The read
Defensible, if early: two refused asks, and the decision is named. But red is a currency: spend it on what you could clear yourself and the next one is discounted.
The update
Amber. One dependency could move the date. It resolves by Friday either way.
Two of eight features are not started, both small and scoped. The risk is the platform endpoint, still without a date. Sam cannot commit without his director; I have them both Wednesday. No date by Friday and this goes red, with two options for you. Nothing needed before then.
The read
The right call: it names the day it turns red. Worst case, red on Friday with two weeks left, not three: a week lost, not the launch.
The update
Green. On track for launch in three weeks.
Six of eight features are on track and QA is clean. The last two have not started, both small and scoped. The endpoint they need has no date, and I am still chasing it. Nothing needed from anyone.
The read
Not defensible. Two refused asks and a booked director is not “still chasing it”; “nothing needed” waves off the one person who could end it. The watermelon grows wherever red costs the reporter something: green outside, red inside. If one lands on your desk, take scope or a date off the first red before asking why it was green.
The four lines under the dot
Same four lines every week, so nobody has to learn your format.
AMBER. [what the colour means for the date, in one sentence]
- Why
- [the one thing driving the colour]
- Doing
- [your next action, with a name and a day]
- From you
- [the decision, and by when], or nothing
- Goes red if
- [the trigger, with its date], amber only
Fill the lines first. The one you cannot fill is telling you the colour is wrong.
A red raised early is a request. The same red raised late is an apology.