We do All Hands every month. It’s a chance for us to come together, introduce newbz, celebrate wins, and share updates. Typically we’ll have up to three 5-15m “modules” covering specific topics.
If you’re reading this, perhaps you’ve volunteered or been tapped to present at an upcoming meeting. Exciting!
But – we ask you take this seriously, and not just slap something together. You’re consuming a lot of time from a lot of people who could be doing other things, and it’s important that the content be substantive, not just “filler” because we have an open slot; we’d rather cancel All-Hands than waste everyone’s time.
The key question you should keep in your mind: would people willingly opt-in to attending this presentation? This may seem like a low bar – and it is, because most all-hands presentations at most companies are dreadful.
Your goal is to get one or two key points across in a way that’s engaging and memorable.
You do not need to be MECE and cover everything you can think of – those presentations suck and people will only remember them for how boring they are, but no one will tell you, because it’ll seem good (it had lots of detail!) but wasn’t (it had too much detail!)
If you’re successful, you’ll probably leave out 90% of what you could talk about – but that’s great, your goal is making that 10% really shine.
In other words: it’s better to be short and cogent than long and comprehensive.
Write out a short abstract answering this question: “What’s the main thing I want a random person in the company to be able to remember a week from now?”
Feel free to share this with others, and see if they think this is something that the whole company wants and needs to hear about.
Good examples:
“the company is doing well because of [X], and we’re investing in growth, but we have to figure out how to do [Y] and that’s a big focus”
or “our main product focus is on [Z] and we’re orienting everyone toward that even at the expense of other stuff customers are asking for.”
Bad examples:
“Our department exists and is doing stuff” (this is unfortunately common)
or “our GTM strategy involves 5 key pillars, which integrate together to drive toward our major strategic objectives for FY25, and include…” – I’m going to stop you right there.
Next, proceed to writing an outline on how you’re going to tell that story. Please resist the temptation to jump straight to making slides. Your thoughts will be better structured in outline form, and you’ll avoid wasting time on formatting and images that may not make the cut after feedback.