THE DUO JOURNAL ·
Business update video script template: make the next action clear
A useful business update video tells a specific audience what changed, what remains open and what happens next. Start with the project and reporting date, separate completed work from planned work, name any decision needed and end with an owner and a next update. Use the template below to prepare the facts before moving the spoken copy into your teleprompter.
This guide is for a routine project or team update, not a product sales demonstration or a full training lesson. Its original fictional example shows how to describe a pending approval without turning a plan into a promise. You can adapt the structure for a weekly team video or a client progress update.
Decide who needs this update and why.
Write one sentence describing the viewer’s next decision. A delivery team may need to know which task can start. A client may need to approve a draft. Leadership may need to understand a changed milestone. Those are different explanations, even when they concern the same project.
Choose the reporting period and a clear date for the status. “As of November second” is easier to interpret later than an undated “today.” For a recurring update, keep the basic order consistent and change the actual facts each time.
Atlassian’s status-report guidance emphasizes audience, blockers and next actions. Our video outline applies that idea to spoken delivery; it is not a measured claim about meeting time or team performance.
Fill in this business update script template.
Use these six prompts as a planning sheet. Replace every bracketed field and verify each statement with the person or record responsible for it. The labels organize the plan; do not leave them in the reader unless you intend to say them.
- Context: “This is the update for [project] covering [period], current as of [date].” Make the scope recognizable to the viewer.
- Verified change: “Since the last update, we completed [specific item].” Describe a finished result rather than a list of activity.
- Current position: “[Next item] is [actual state].” Distinguish drafted, reviewed, approved and published where those states matter.
- Open decision: “We are waiting for [decision or input], which affects [next step].” If there is no blocker, say what you are checking next instead of inventing one.
- Action and owner: “[Owner or role] will [next action] by [date or agreed checkpoint].” Mark a target as a target if it is not a confirmed commitment.
- Follow-up: “The next update is [date or trigger]. The written details are in [shared location].” Give the viewer one useful action if a response is needed.
Download the English business-update planning template. It contains prompts to edit, not a finished announcement. Keep the underlying factual notes and the spoken draft separate so you can revise the wording without losing the basis for it.
Example: a fictional resource-library project.
The following is original sample copy about an imaginary team. Jordan, the project state and the dates are invented for the exercise. This is not a report about Teleprompter Duo or a claim that any real team completed this work:
“Here is the resource-library update for the period ending November second, twenty twenty-six. We finished the navigation-label review. The support pages are drafted but not yet approved. Publication is waiting for approval of the help-menu names. Jordan owns that review, with a target of November fourth. Once the names are approved, the team can check the links against the final wording. If you need a label changed, add the proposed wording to the shared review document before that checkpoint. Our next update on November sixth will confirm whether the pages are ready to publish.”
Download the clean English spoken example. It contains only the paragraph to read aloud. When adapting it, replace the project, status, owner, dates and response location together. Do not carry its invented deadlines into a real update by accident.
Notice the distinction between “drafted” and “approved.” The example reports one completed review while leaving publication conditional on a separate decision. It does not announce a launch date that the team has not confirmed.
Replace vague progress with a checkable statement.
“We made great progress” gives the viewer little to act on. “The draft is ready for the design owner to review” identifies the state and the next handoff. If you use a percentage, count or comparison in your own update, keep its definition and reporting period available in the written notes. Do not invent a number to make the video sound more precise.
A target date and a finished event need different wording. “We aim to finish on Wednesday” describes an intention; “the review finished on Wednesday” describes an event. Before filming, check whether a date, owner or status changed while the script was being edited.
If the answer is not known, name the open question and the next check. You can say “the approval date is not confirmed; the owner will update the review document after the decision.” That is more useful than reading a confident forecast with no basis.
Prepare spoken copy and record it.
Read the draft aloud and expand abbreviations the audience may not know. Use short paragraphs around changes of subject. Keep evidence links, production notes and instructions outside the words you want to read; the script-formatting guide explains this separation.
Teleprompter Duo lets you write, paste or import UTF-8 plain text. Rehearse without recording, then use the Duo setup guide to keep the words near the rear recording lens. If you tend to rush dates and names, use the reading-speed guide to calibrate your own delivery rather than aiming at an arbitrary runtime.
Rear main camera capture supports up to 4K (3840 × 2160), depending on the camera and device. Check your actual framing and audio; recording dimensions do not verify the business facts. Free includes timed rehearsal and one completed recording with watermarked exports. Further recordings require Pro; consult the Free and Pro limits before planning several takes.
If captions are part of the final video, check the spoken dates, names and status words in the generated text. Our caption-generation and review workflow explains Pro caption tools and why the saved export needs its own review.
Review the update before sharing.
- Is the project, audience and reporting date clear?
- Does each “completed” statement describe finished work?
- Are drafts, approvals and publication kept distinct?
- Are uncertainty and any target dates described accurately?
- Does each requested action identify an owner and a useful checkpoint?
- Does the written record agree with the recorded words and captions?
- Have you replaced every placeholder and checked the final video?
A video can explain the situation while the written record carries links, detail and later corrections. If the status changes after filming, update or replace the outdated message rather than letting the recording look current indefinitely.
For learning to present without memorizing every line, use the no-memorization recording guide. If you are evaluating your setup, consult the iPhone Duo teleprompter buying guide and the Teleprompter Duo app destination.