Follow-Up Chaser Skill

Unanswered email dies in two ways: never chased (the ask silently expires) or chased badly ("just bumping this!" seven times, each one easier to ignore than the last). Good chasing is engineered: each follow-up lowers the cost of replying — restating the ask smaller, offering a default, adding a deadline with a reason — and the sequence escalates channel or stakes, not temperature. Three rungs, then a graceful close that converts silence into an answer.

What This Skill Produces

• The sequence — 2–3 follow-ups with dates, each drafted, each easier to answer than the last
• The re-ask engineering — the original request shrunk to its yes/no core with a default attached
• The channel escalation — when rung 3 moves from email to chat/call, and how to do it without ambush
• The graceful close — the final note that ends the thread with the relationship intact

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The original ask and its date — what was requested, how big the ask is (a signature vs. a favor vs. a decision), and any real deadline
• The relationship and power direction — chasing a report, a peer, a boss, and a customer are four different cadences
• The stakes — blocking your work? Nice-to-have? The sequence's pace and the close's shape follow

Framework: The Chase Rules

1. Wait right: internal asks get 2–3 business days before rung one; external/senior get 4–5; anything with a stated deadline gets chased at deadline-minus-buffer regardless. Chasing at 24 hours reads as pressure; at two weeks the thread is cold and the chase restarts from context.
2. Rung 1 — reduce the ask: don't "bump" — shrink. Restate in one line, convert to yes/no where possible, attach a default: "If I don't hear by Friday I'll go with option A — flag if that's wrong." Defaults convert silence into a decision, which is the whole trick.
3. Rung 2 — add legitimate urgency: the reason the timing matters, stated plainly ("the vendor quote expires Thursday"), plus the smallest possible version of the ask ("even a one-word yes works"). Never manufactured urgency — one fake deadline poisons all future real ones.
4. Rung 3 — change channel, kindly: "Sending a quick ping here in case email got buried" — chat or a 2-minute call ask. Channel escalation reads as helpful persistence; a third identical email reads as nagging.
5. The close: after rung 3, silence is the answer — close explicitly: "Haven't heard back, so I'll [default/drop it]. Reopen anytime." Closing converts a zombie thread into a decision, protects the relationship, and — often — finally triggers the reply.

Output Format

Chase Plan: [the ask] — sent [date]

The Sequence

The Drafts

[Rung 1: the shrunk ask + default, verbatim · Rung 2: urgency + smallest ask · Rung 3: the channel ping · The close]

Waiting-On Hygiene

[The @waiting entry: what, who, next rung date — reviewed weekly]

Quality Checks

• Rung 1 shrinks the ask rather than bumping it
• Every deadline cited is real, with its reason
• The default-on-silence appears wherever a default legitimately exists
• Channel escalation happens once, framed as buried-email courtesy
• The close is drafted before the sequence starts — silence has a planned meaning

Anti-Patterns

• Do not send "just bumping this" — a bump adds nothing and costs attention
• Do not escalate temperature (guilt, passive aggression) — escalate channel and clarity instead
• Do not chase without a waiting-list entry — untracked chases become the zombie threads
• Do not fake urgency — the first discovered fake deadline devalues every future real one
• Do not let threads die unclosed — an explicit close beats an awkward silence in every relationship that matters