“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
\n\u2013 Herbert A. Simon<\/p>\n
Read this European phone number to a colleague: +49692877693.<\/p>\n
How did you present it?<\/p>\n
Was it a single non-stop string without any pauses or groupings, or did you break it up into small sections, such as \u201c+49 69 287 76 93\u201d?<\/p>\n
Chances are you broke it up into two- or three-number chunks. We do this naturally!<\/p>\n
And, if you happened to present the phone number as a single long string, I\u2019ll bet your colleague may have asked you to repeat it, tacitly expecting you to break it up into small, discrete sections.<\/p>\n
Why do we break things up this way?<\/p>\n
“Chunking makes our brains more efficient. The more you can chunk something, the faster and easier you can process it…”<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kevin Maney<\/p>\n
From Google: \u201cWe chunk information to bypass the strict limits of our working memory. By grouping individual pieces of data into larger, meaningful units, we reduce cognitive overload, make content easier to scan, and significantly improve our ability to memorize and process information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Very simply, we break things up into smaller components to make them consumable. Eating provides a simple set of analogies, for example. We cut food into bite-size pieces since we can\u2019t fit anything larger in our mouths: This is a f\u00edsico<\/em> limitation.<\/p>\n Our brains suffer similar mental<\/em> limitations. But traditional demos ignore these constraints, confusing prospects and vendors alike. Prospects are told \u201cNow, este<\/em> is really important\u2026\u201d dozens of times, while vendors don\u2019t understand why prospects are confused.<\/p>\n Contemplate a traditional 1-hour SaaS demo (a stunningly awful Harbor Tour). How many features would you guess are presented? Forty is a good estimate, yet I\u2019ve seen muchos<\/em> demos that highlighted a feature per minute. That\u2019s sixty<\/em> specific ideas the vendor wants their prospect to remember.<\/p>\n That. Is. Impossible!<\/p>\n It\u2019s like pouring a liter of wine into a glass that only holds 150ml: 850ml is wasted. (For folks in the U.S., that\u2019s like pouring a quart of wine into a 5oz glass.) However, you can consume that full bottle of wine over time<\/em> if you drink five individual glasses (please space this out over a few hours and I\u2019m not responsible for your behavior if you do<\/em> attempt this experiment!).<\/p>\n At best, your typical human can retain five to seven pieces of information at once. That\u2019s a metaphoric generous glass of wine. Frankly, tres<\/em> ideas are what most people are comfortable with at a time, representative of a more consumable pour.<\/p>\n The point is that if you chunk<\/em> things in the physical or mental worlds and present those chunks over time (with some additional strategies and tactics, below) you have a much better chance of enabling consumption and retention.<\/p>\n “You can have it all. Just not all at once.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Oprah Winfrey<\/p>\n Just as we need to pace ourselves when eating and pause between bites (teenagers excepted), retention of ideas improves when we give them time to get digested.<\/p>\n It turns out that the typical adult human can pay attention when receiving information for about ten minutes. That\u2019s it. After that, our mental mouth is full; we need time to swallow and process before our next bite.<\/p>\n Now consider: How long are your typical demos? Thirty minutes? An hour?<\/p>\n For an hour-long demo, each mental bite of three (typical) to seven (exceptional) ideas is all you can handle at a time. Accordingly, you\u2019ll need to break up your demo into (at least!) six bites \u2013 six chunks \u2013 of ten minutes each.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s stretching your audience\u2019s ability to pay attention. Chunks of a algunos<\/em> minutes yield stronger engagement and spur a real conversation to take place.<\/p>\n Continuing our dining analogy, note that there are significant pauses between dishes in a multiple course meal. Each course represents a chunk and each bite a tasty, consumable component within that chunk.<\/p>\n But it is the pause, along with conversation and a sip of water that refreshes and enables us to start on the next chunk with our full attention. Let\u2019s examine this more closely!<\/p>\n “A college professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep.”<\/p>\n For those who went to college or university, recall your freshmen or first-year lectures. Large rooms filled with dozens or hundreds of students, often a bit too warm, with the lecturer at the podium beneath a huge screen.<\/p>\n As the class begins you are awake and ready to take notes. The professor presents the topic supported by the occasional slide or graphic. You are following along just fine.<\/p>\n But after a few minutes your mind wanders. Someone comes in late and you all turn to stare while the speaker continues, ignoring the distraction. You miss a section of the talk and glance at a neighbor\u2019s notes to see what they captured. Gratefully, nothing important was lost and you turn your attention back to the podium.<\/p>\n After only ten minutes into the class you realize you\u2019ve checked out. Not intentionally, it\u2019s just that you are struggling to pay attention. And unless the lecturer does something to reengage you, you\u2019ll miss even more of the topic. Ten minutes was all it took.<\/p>\n You need to be refreshed!<\/p>\n \u201cSuccess is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.\u201d<\/p>\n - Oscar Wilde<\/p>\n So, the typical adult human can pay attention for about ten minutes. If you want people to continue to engage, you\u2019ll need to \u201crefresh\u201d them. You need the dining equivalent of a pause, a sip of water or wine, engaging conversation, or even standing up and stretching. What will refresh your audience in a demo?<\/p>\n Summaries serve as excellent vehicles to refresh your audience. Just hearing the phrase, \u201cSo, to summarize\u2026\u201d causes people to reengage. (Sometimes I believe audiences are relieved to hear this phrase as it indicates that the presenter is, finally, reaching a conclusion!)<\/p>\n But offering a summary at the end of an hour-long demo doesn\u2019t help along the way.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the solution? Provide interim <\/em>summaries at the end of each chunk: \u201cSo, you just saw the key dashboard you said you need, enabling you to recapture $20,000 annually. Thoughts? Comments? Questions?\u201d And now you pause to give your audience a moment to process and formulate their thoughts.<\/p>\n This combination of a crisp summary and a pause does indeed refresh your audience. In face-to-face demos you may even notice a change in their body language to a more alert posture.<\/p>\n And guess what? Now you\u2019ve earned another ten minutes of attention!<\/p>\n Are there other ways to refresh your audience? Absolutely!<\/p>\n Are breaking your delivery into smaller chunks and refreshing your audience the only ways to improve attention (and retention)? Certainly not!<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn’t so astonishing, the number of things that I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren’t so.\u201d<\/p>\n - Mark Twain<\/p>\n Studies have shown that when presented with a list of ideas or facts, humans tend to remember the first one or two items quite well. They also recall the \u00faltimo<\/em> element moderately well.<\/p>\n However, the balance of the list is remembered quite poorly. This suggests that each chunk should focus on no more than tres<\/em> specific ideas.<\/p>\n Even more concerning is how people \u201cremember\u201d information that was never presented<\/em>! In these same studies, participants frequently invented or synthesized information on their own, yet believed that it had been presented.<\/p>\n Reducing the length of chunks helps to combat this, as does summarizing the (three) key points you want people to remember from each chunk.<\/p>\n \u201cIf all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n - George Bernard Shaw<\/p>\n In Great Demo! methodology, presenting a Situation Slide is a chunk. Presenting an Illustration is a chunk as well. And a Do It pathway is also a chunk, as are cada<\/em> Peel Back the Layers pathways. And note that the methodology prompts you to provide a summary and\/or confirmation exchange at the close of each of these.<\/p>\n For those few unfortunates who have never been exposed (gasp!) to Great Demo!, the steps required to complete a simple task is a good candidate for a chunk. Accordingly, a chunk could be as short as a single mouse click, if that\u2019s all that is needed to complete the task: That\u2019s a great chunk!<\/p>\n Completing a typical workflow is also a good candidate for a chunk. But avoid driving yourself into the weeds by presenting \u201cif\u201d and \u201cor\u201d options.<\/p>\n For many SaaS applications, working within a single tab or module provides the outer frame for a chunk. When you move to a new tab or module, you are likely entering a new chunk.<\/p>\n Generally, the shorter the chunk the better. When executing any task or workflow in a demo, think in terms of how your current customers complete them: They use the fewest number of steps or clicks. No extra steps.<\/p>\n Another way to comprehend this is to remember the way usted<\/em> execute su <\/em>required tasks on a daily basis. Do you add any unnecessary steps when you are working to get things done? Likely not!<\/p>\n Need to update the CRM after a call? That\u2019s a chunk and you complete it with the fewest steps possible. File an expense report? Same process and that\u2019s also a chunk.<\/p>\n Finally, consider breaking up long workflows into logical chunks. Handoffs, between people, systems, or tasks, represent ending and beginning new chunks.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to put these ideas into practice and assess how you are doing. Can you improve your chunking practices?<\/p>\n “Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Epictetus<\/p>\n Analyze your demos in terms of the number of Speaker Switches and the length of time between Speaker Switches.<\/p>\n If you see just a handful of Speaker Switches in your demo, then you are overstuffing your prospect, like our food analogy above. If the duration<\/em> between Speaker Switches is six or eight minutes or (gasp) longer, you are at risk as well.<\/p>\n Your target should be three or four minutes; even shorter is better. This helps your audience stay engaged and pay attention. Practice delivering demo chunks that fit within these constraints and remember to conclude each chunk with a summary.<\/p>\n “The inverted pyramid doesn’t bore the reader. It gives them what they want straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013 The Writing Cooperative<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In demos, you can apply Inverted Pyramid in dos<\/em> dimensiones:<\/p>\n And if you don\u2019t already have your prospect\u2019s priorities from discovery, you can use the Menu Approach to accomplish this on the fly.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s all we want to know.<\/p>\n 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!).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cA good example is far better than a good precept.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013 Dwight L. Moody<\/p>\n This article is also organized in discrete chunks, as I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve noticed. Each subhead offers you an opportunity to pause, reflect, and refresh.<\/p>\n And I hope you also noticed that the periodic quotes are designed to accomplish the same goals!<\/p>\n So, we\u2019ve explored the importance of chunking in demos to increase engagement and retention. We\u2019ve identified ways to architect chunks and listed several ways to refresh your audience both within and between chunks. And finally, we examined how you can apply Inverted Pyramid across the entirety of your demo and within each chunk.<\/p>\n That\u2019s three key ideas I hope you remember and apply!<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n - Henry Ford<\/p>\n “We’re not in a world of information overload, we’re in a world of filter failure.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Michael Lazerow<\/p>\n “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Jean Baudrillard<\/p>\n “In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Austin Kleon<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time\u2026\u201d (But please don\u2019t, we need the elephants!)<\/p>\n \u201cA journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRome wasn’t built in a day.”<\/p>\n “Little strokes fell great oaks.” (Again, please be mindful of these beautiful trees\u2026!)<\/p>\n “If you’re overwhelmed by the size of a problem, break it down into smaller pieces.”<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n GREAT DEMO! https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0C9SNKC2Y\/<\/a><\/p>\n Deje que su campe\u00f3n conduzca<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/demo-do-let-your-champion-drive\/<\/a><\/p>\n Cuentacuentos<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/effective-storytelling-in-discovery-demos-and-more-a-never-stop-learning-article\/<\/a><\/p>\n El enfoque del men\u00fa<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/the-menu-approach-a-truly-terrific-demo-self-rescue-technique-3\/<\/a><\/p>\n Customer Fill-in<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/customer-fill-in-a-truly-terrific-demo-tip-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n The Attention-Retention Effect<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/leveraging-attention-retention-curves-in-demos\/<\/a><\/p>\n Pir\u00e1mide invertida<\/p>\n https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/why-structure-demos-like-a-news-article\/<\/a><\/p>\n Avoiding If and Or<\/p>\nTime?<\/h4>\n
Losing Attention<\/h4>\n
Refreshment<\/h4>\n
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The Attention-Retention Effect<\/h4>\n
But What Is a Good Chunk in a Demo?<\/h4>\n
Speaker Switches Assessment<\/h4>\n
Pro Tip: Inverted Pyramid<\/h4>\n
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Another Example or Two<\/h4>\n
A Final Chunk<\/h4>\n
Bonus Section: Great Quotes about Chunking<\/h4>\n
Resources:<\/h4>\n
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