[original post date 1 Apr 2017, migrated from ubedge.com]
I asked my manager on what are things that I could do to be a better a product person. Her tip which took 2 minutes to implement when I started putting in practice had profound impact on me. Since then I have shared it with scores of entrepreneurs and some reported a had 100X return for them too.
We engage in conversation with folks that have scarce attention span, the more senior in a decision making capacity somebody is the more scarce their attention is. In meetings when asked to explain something i.e a new product feature, a business plan, a startup idea we are in so much in love with what we do that we start with telling the birth story of how we started and from there describe a journey line of how it reached till current stage.
Her tip was to invert the messaging architecture, i.e when there is limited attention span first describe the conclusion and then go down a pyramid of how it layered up. In other words first narrate your message as trailer and not as the making of the movie. It is only when folks get excited in a trailer will they decide to watch the movie and a very select few even care about the making of the movie.
Most folks, especially engineers instead start with explaining the making of the movie.
mtrajan.com 