The same report, sent unchanged to both, will underperform with at least one of them. Not because either person is difficult, but because they're sitting at different altitudes and reading for different things.
A director is close enough to the work to have opinions about it. They know the system, the team, the last three quarters of context, and they're often the person who has to defend your numbers to someone above them. An executive is usually reading your update alongside a dozen others from teams they don't know in that kind of depth. They're not evaluating your process, they're deciding whether this needs their attention right now or can keep running on its own.
Send a director the executive version and it reads as thin, like you're withholding the reasoning they actually need to help you. Send an executive the director version and it reads as unfocused, like you don't know which details matter.
Show the trade-offs, not just the outcome. A director can act on "we chose A over B because of X," an executive usually can't and doesn't need to. Include what you considered and rejected, what resources or people would change the timeline, and where you'd want their input specifically, not just their approval.
"We're behind on the migration by about a week. I looked at pulling in a contractor versus pushing the date, contracting adds ramp-up time we don't have, so I'm planning to push the date and backfill the gap by deferring the reporting dashboard to next sprint. Wanted your read before I lock that in, since it touches the dashboard commitment you made to finance."
Lead with the answer, then stop. An executive wants to know: is this fine, is this a problem, and if it's a problem, is it yours to solve or theirs. The reasoning belongs in a sentence, not a paragraph, and it should be available if they ask, not required for them to understand your conclusion.
"The migration will land a week later than planned, no impact to the finance dashboard commitment. Handled internally, nothing needed from you."
A director is asking "how are we doing this." An executive is asking "are we going to be fine." Answer the one they're actually asking.
This distinction matters most in recurring reporting relationships, not one-off updates. If you report to both a director and an executive on the same project, it's worth writing two short versions rather than one long one and trusting each reader to find their part. The version built for a director's depth will cost you credibility with an executive's patience, and the reverse costs you a director's trust that you actually understand the work.