How to present a tech topic to a non-tech audience. My "Intelligent Pitching" approach asks the presenter to consider what is on his or her audience's mind and speak to those concerns.

1. Use “Intelligent Pitching” to Explain
a Technical Problem to a non-
Technical Audience
A Better Approach to Presentations
Dan Gordon
dan@valhallapartners.com
@dangordontech

2. What Do I Know About Pitching?
• I go through lots of
presentations
– 10,000 for me since
becoming a VC?
• Never had a
presenter ask what’s
on my mind
• Most presenters
– Talk “at” me
– Don’t talk “to” me

3. Intelligent Pitching
• One of the three
great lessons I
learned about
writing and
communication in
general
– Know the mind of
your audience
• Not just for
entrepreneurs and
investors
– Everyone pitches
– You either sell or
you work for
someone who sells

4. The Virtuous Circle of Intelligent Pitching
What do
you want
them to
think next?
Persuade
them
What are
They
Thinking?
Know Your
audience
Cast Your
Spell
Assess Your
Impact

5. A Quick Case Study
“We need more engineering resource
to lower technical debt by re-factoring
the code”

6. Know Your Audience 1: They Don’t Know
• They don’t know what
technical debt is
• They don’t know what
re-factoring is
• They don’t really know
what code is
• They believe that
techies do what we do
by magic.
– To be fair, we believe
the same of them
• They don’t like being
dependent on us
What
Refactoring
means to
You
What
Refactoring
means to
Them

7. Know Your Audience 2: They Don’t Care
(Much)
• It’s easier for them picture making money
than to picture saving money
• And it’s hard for them to picture how re-factoring
will even save money
• They know full well that just because you re-factor
the code doesn’t mean you’re going to
cut staff

8. Know Your Audience 3: Refactoring is Low
on Their Tower of Wishes and Woe
• Everyone has a “tower of
wishes and woe”
• Most intense, most
pressing concerns at the
top
• Least intense, least
pressing concerns at the
bottom
• If a solution isn’t tied to
something on the Tower,
it won’t matter
My Daughter’s Braces
Pleasing my Boss
Not Looking Like an
Idiot
Am I a good
person?
Increasing
Revenues
Saving
Costs
World
Peace
Free
Tibet

9. Cast Your Spell 1: Show That You Know
What They’re Thinking
What You Want Them to Think What You Say/Show
“I’m not a 3-card Monte card sharp” “Software Development is not magic, but there
are best practices that reliably give better
results”
“Re-factoring will give you benefits
that matter to you”
“Re-factoring will allow us to incorporate new
features that wouldn’t fit in the schedule
otherwise”
“No cost cuts, but very likely
productivity gains”
“Re-factoring will improve morale and therefore
productivity on the tech team”

10. Cast Your Spell 2: Attach to the Highest
Wish(es) You Can
• Convincing them that you
can “save costs” (Wish #6)
is no good if you may
make them “look like an
idiot” (Woe #3)
• Attachment cannot be
superficial
– “This will make you look
good to your boss” is a
turnoff remark, not a turn-on
My Daughter’s Braces
Pleasing my Boss
Not Looking Like an
Idiot
Am I a good
person?
Increasing
Revenues
Saving
Costs
World
Peace
Free
Tibet

11. Cast Your Spell 3: Go Beyond Logic
• Persuasion is (at least)
equal parts emotion
and reason
• Emotion is not lying
• Techniques:
– Use Story
– Use Detail
– Use more than words
– Understand what
images and metaphors
will reach them
• Tower of Wishes and
Woes

12. What the “Refactoring” Slide Might
Say
We need to schedule time for
Preventive Maintenance
• Just because software is
invisible doesn’t mean
it’s magic
• Re-factoring the
software regularly will
make new features
easier to implement
• Re-factoring improves
team morale and
productivity

13. Assess Your Impact 1: What’s Wrong with
Interruptions?
• Nothing!
• The opposite of interest is boredom, not
questions
• Always answer questions
• Never stick to the pitch

14. Assess Your Impact 2: How to Tell When
You’re Losing Your Audience
• Absence of
questions
• Playing with tech
toys
• Body language
– Crossed arms, etc.
– Lack of eye contact
• Fidgeting

15. …And What To Do About It
• Let someone else from your team take over
– Good advice generally, btw
• Ask them what questions are on their mind as they
hear what you’ve said so far
– A little better than “any questions” at the end of each slide
• Have some props that are not PowerPoint
– Gadgets
– Mobile app where they have to download the app
– Financials that are not on a slide (so they can see them)
• Ask for a bio break!
– Looks odd, but better than putting them to sleep

16. Assess Your Impact 3: Always do a post-mortem
• Have someone from your team watch the
audience and take notes
– What did they like?
– What did they hate?
– What went over their heads?
• Iterate the pitch and make it better next time

17. Dan Gordon
dan@valhallapartners.com
@dangordontech
THANK YOU – QUESTIONS?