\"La mitad del mundo est\u00e1 compuesta por gente que tiene algo que decir y no puede, y la otra mitad que no tiene nada que decir y sigue dici\u00e9ndolo\".<\/p>\n
- Robert Frost<\/p>\n
Remember newspapers, the analog version of web-delivered news? We can take an extremely valuable page from their playbook and apply it to our demos\u2026<\/p>\n
Structure your demonstrations like a news article!<\/p>\n
News organizations have been presenting information for several hundreds of years, in print and for the past three decades via the web, and they have learned some highly effective practices that we can employ in demonstrating software.<\/p>\n
Think about the news articles you read and consider:<\/p>\n
Imagine you\u2019ve just browsed to your favorite web news site (or, for those who still are killing forests, you just picked up today\u2019s newspaper). From their home page (or newspaper front page), what is presented to you and what do you explore? How mucho<\/em> do you explore?<\/p>\n You are shown perhaps ten to twenty headlines, many of which are paired with images (think Great Demo! Illustrations). You scan these for stories of interest to you.<\/p>\n You browse some headlines but never click into the articles. For others you read the headline, click into the article, and consume a paragraph or two and then exit. And for a few intriguing articles, you read most or even the entire story!<\/p>\n In this method of communication, you are enjoying two highly effective strategies:<\/p>\n En Enfoque del men\u00fa<\/a> is applied as you scan the headlines and images, seeking stories of interest to you. It works (literally!) like a restaurant menu: It shows you what\u2019s available and lets you choose which items you\u2019d like to pursue.<\/p>\n News websites (and newspapers) organize information in a hierarchy of consumable components that can be accessed rapidly, explored as deeply as desired, and then exited at any point to move to the next topic of interest. The top level of the news hierarchy is the home page, followed by the list (another Menu!) of sections: sports, finance, international, entertainment, technology, health, comics (my first-thing-in-the-morning favorite!), weather, etc.<\/p>\n The homepage and each section\u2019s start page are beautiful examples of the Menu Approach in action. Now, let\u2019s examine the construction of the articles themselves!<\/p>\n Each individual article is cleverly organized to enable readers to make rapid decisions about their depth of interest. The headline presents the topic, providing a binary opportunity for readers to pursue the story or move on. In a well-written news article, the first one or two paragraphs summarize the story concisely (known as the lede<\/em>). Many readers are completely satisfied with this amount of information and read no further, returning to scan for other headlines.<\/p>\n The subsequent paragraphs in an article drill deeper and relate the story in more detail. Readers who are truly interested in the topic are the typical consumers of this level of information.<\/p>\n This article structure and presentation of information is known as the \u201cInverted Pyramid\u201d style of writing. It presents the most important information right at the beginning, starting with the headline then followed by the overall summary of the article in the first one or two paragraphs.<\/p>\n Material in subsequent paragraphs is more and more detailed and of less importance. Reading on towards the end of an article we generally find the finest levels of granularity and smallest details.<\/p>\n In the bad old days of paper and ink, newspaper editors were able to cut articles to fit the space available (or to sell more advertising) by cutting from the bottom<\/em> of the article upwards<\/em>. That way they knew they\u2019d be removing the menos <\/em>informaci\u00f3n importante.<\/p>\n News organizations have evolved the Inverted Pyramid method of presenting information over hundreds of years. Why not take advantage of this learning?<\/p>\n Have you ever heard a demo presenter say, \u201cWe have lot to cover so I\u2019ll go really fast\u2026\u201d? Have you ever said something similar yourself?<\/p>\n Have you ever been unable to get to the \u201cbest stuff\u201d because time was short or a visi\u00f3n general de la empresa<\/a> presentation consumed part of your time?<\/p>\n Many of us respond by moving very rapidly through our demo (while also telling our audience that \u201cwe want this to be as interactive as possible, so please ask questions\u2026\u201d). Are we surprised when we don\u2019t get through the material and our prospects don\u2019t ask any questions?<\/p>\n We shouldn\u2019t be, we\u2019ve turned the demo into a one-way monologue!<\/p>\n So, take a page from the news services. Present the demo equivalent of a headline or photo succinctly and rapidly. That\u2019s the top of the Inverted Pyramid, and in Great Demo! methodology we call this an Illustration.<\/p>\n For some prospect players, particularly executives, this may be sufficient!<\/p>\n For those interested in the demo equivalent of the first couple of paragraphs (the lede), present the key capabilities using a minimum of mouse clicks. This corresponds to the Great Demo! \u201cDo It\u201d pathway.<\/p>\n Finally, for audiences who are really interested, you can dig deeper and explore the breadth and depth of the relevant capabilities, just like those who wish to read more of the article. In Great Demo! we call this \u201cPeeling Back the Layers.\u201d<\/p>\n Es interesante observar tambi\u00e9n que hay muy<\/em> pocos lectores de las noticias que leen todo<\/em> on a news website (I can\u2019t imagine if it is possible, in fact!). Similarly in demos, you are no<\/em> obligated to present everything that your software can do, so please don\u2019t.<\/p>\n And as news people say, \u201cDon\u2019t bury the lede!\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you have four prospect players in your demo meeting:<\/p>\n How do you organize your demo for this disparate group of people? You combine the Menu Approach with Inverted Pyramid for each player: it\u2019s actually four individual<\/em> demostraciones<\/p>\n Work with the executive first: present a Menu for him or her. Let them choose the item of most interest and then present the Illustration. Is this enough or would they like to see more? Yes? One or two \u201cDo It\u201d clicks satisfies their interest and they are done.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s next? The middle manager.<\/p>\n You follow the same process: Menu, Illustration, Do It, and then Peel Back the Layers in accord with their depth and level of interest.<\/p>\n Next up is the individual contributor. Rince and repeat: Menu, Illustration, Do It, and then Peel Back the Layers.<\/p>\n Who is last? The system administrator, and you follow the same process for them. Interestingly, what the admin wants to see is like someone who reads sections of the news that nobody else care about!<\/p>\n Can Inverted Pyramid be applied elsewhere in demos? But of course!<\/p>\n \u201cCan it export to ___?\u201d asks the prospect.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely! We support seven different types of export formats, including ___, ___, ___, ___, and especially ___, ___, and ___, which offer significant advantages in export fidelity as some of the colors aren\u2019t rendered as accurately in the other formats, plus the translation of European number format to U.S. format is done really well, along with handling address and phone numbers from 71 countries\u2026\u201d responds the vendor, who is about to continue when the prospect says,<\/p>\n \u201cOh \u2013 so the answer was \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to organizing the content of your demo, one of the best uses of Inverted Pyramid is answering questions. You start with the highest-level answer and then test<\/em> to see if your prospect is satisfied or wants more detail.<\/p>\n In the dialog above, the vendor should have started with \u201cYes\u201d and then asked, \u201cIs that sufficient or would you like more depth?\u201d<\/p>\n Simple and very effective! (Is that enough or would you like to see more on the Elegant Art of Managing Questions and Time<\/a>?)<\/p>\n Earlier I noted that newspaper editors could trim articles to fit the available space by cutting stories from the bottom<\/em> upwards. In doing so they knew they\u2019d lose the least important information and that the balance of the article was unaffected.<\/p>\n We can apply the same principle in our demos!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you expected an hour for your demo meeting, but you\u2019ve only been given thirty minutes: what do you do? By applying Inverted Pyramid, you are able to communicate the most important capabilities and concepts to your prospect; you\u2019ll leave many of the details and less important information out. That\u2019s the demo equivalent of cutting upwards from the bottom of your story.<\/p>\n Have only twenty minutes? Same principle.<\/p>\n Only ten minutes? Invert that pyramid!<\/p>\n How about a one-minute interaction in an elevator? Inverted Pyramid is the answer!<\/p>\n News organizations have evolved and production hardened the use of the Menu Approach and Inverted Pyramid in presenting information extremely effectively, mapped to each individual\u2019s desire.<\/p>\n Why not apply the same ideas in your demos?<\/p>\n (And perhaps in other forms of communication, as well!)<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009-2026 The Second Derivative \u2013 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n Para aprender los m\u00e9todos presentados anteriormente, \u00a1considere la posibilidad de inscribirse en una Gran Demostraci\u00f3n! Realizaci\u00f3n de habilidades de descubrimiento o demostraci\u00f3n Taller<\/a>. Para obtener m\u00e1s consejos sobre demostraciones y descubrimientos, mejores pr\u00e1cticas, herramientas y t\u00e9cnicas, explore nuestro libros<\/a>blog y art\u00edculos en las p\u00e1ginas de Recursos de nuestro sitio web en https:\/\/GreatDemo.com<\/a> y \u00fanete al Gran demostraci\u00f3n y grupo de LinkedIn \"Doing Discovery<\/a> para aprender de los dem\u00e1s y compartir sus experiencias.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Power of Inverted Pyramid! \u201cHalf the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-45139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-demo-blog","tag-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45141,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45139\/revisions\/45141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Pir\u00e1mide invertida<\/h4>\n
What Happens in Demos Without Inverted Pyramid?<\/h4>\n
Organize Your Demos Using Inverted Pyramid<\/h4>\n
Combine the Menu Approach with Inverted Pyramid<\/h4>\n
\n
Answering Questions<\/h4>\n
Running Short on Time?<\/h4>\n
Use the News<\/h4>\n