“The inverted pyramid doesn’t bore the reader. It gives them what they want straight away.”

– The Writing Cooperative

Inverted Pyramid, developed by newspeople, organizes and presents information in alignment with how people want to consume it. The most important material is presented first, followed by the next most significant, and so forth.

This enables consumers to explore in as much depth as they desire, without getting bogged down by details. We can (and should!) apply this same approach to demos. Executives only want the headline and the lede; middle managers continue for another paragraph or two, and staff members often want the details.

In demos, you can apply Inverted Pyramid in two dimensions:

Across the entirety of the demo: Which chunks are most important? Which are secondary? Which can be left out? Inverted Pyramid helps you organize the overall structure of a multi-segment demo to align with your prospect’s interests.

And if you don’t already have your prospect’s priorities from discovery, you can use the Menu Approach to accomplish this on the fly.

Within each chunk: This enables your audience to explore each topic in as much detail as they have interest.

This demo structure models a news website (or for the ancient, a newspaper!). The headlines and photos enable you to choose which articles you want to consume. Many of us pursue some articles just that far: the photo and headline. That’s all we want to know.

For other articles, we read a bit further to get more context and development of the topic. And for a few articles, we read most or even all of the text (I hear this most frequently with sports topics!).

Also note that news services offer a Menu of their content: National, International, Politics, Business, Health, Entertainment, etc. The Menu lets you rapidly access the topic(s) of greatest interest to you.

There you go: Organizing in bite-size chunks and applying Inverted Pyramid make your demos surprisingly crisp, compelling, and successful!

Resources:

Why Structure Demos Like a News Article?

https://greatdemo.com/why-structure-demos-like-a-news-article/

El enfoque del menú - Una técnica de auto-rescate de demostración realmente estupenda

https://greatdemo.com/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique-3/

Bite-Size Is Better:

The Power of Chunking in Software Demos

https://greatdemo.com/bite-sized-is-better-the-power-of-chunking-in-software-demos/

How Chunking Improves Demos – Part 7: Can You Improve Your Chunking Practices?

https://greatdemo.com/how-chunking-improves-demos-part-7-can-you-improve-your-chunking-practices/

GREAT DEMO! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/