The end user of any piece of communication you may be preparing, whether that is a voicemail or a lengthy paper. There may be multiple users to consider, for example your face-to-face client may present your document to the CEO and you will need to communicate differently for each party, perhaps using an email cover sheet or a conversation to communicate with your face-to-face audience and a final letter or report for the CEO.

You may also need to consider people who will read your document later on. For example, file notes about a sales meeting or conversations with a client are relevant straight away but also potentially years later where a clear understanding of the context and the logic will be even more important than it is now while the information is fresh.