Get Strategic

I am constantly reminded of Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule for all presentations.  It is crazy thinking I read this article the day it was posted and have followed the rule ever since that date.  Over the past 6 years the rule has taken a life of it’s own so I call it the 30/20/10 note… so I don’t have to footnote Guy each time

Where Guy counts up (10/20/30), I feel it is more important to look at it the other way and I count down; hence 30/20/10.  No font smaller than 30 point, nothing longer than 20 minutes and no more than 10 slides. I do not give many presentations to groups, but I use this rule as my first step if I should take the idea from my head to production.  Until I am able to my thoughts in to this format, it stays as an idea.

In the big picture, consumers want instant results and if the idea/venture/start-up involves too many steps in order to be adobpted, my experience has proven it is not yet full baked.  Unlike Guy’s 10/20/30, my presentation is a start-up test, so I do not include anything about the team, finances or milestones, but those slides are not pertinent in idea creation.  Here are the page titles I use:

1. Title Page with 1 “Twitter Description”
2. Pain: What is the problem/void in the market
3. Your solution: What is your unique Advantage
4. Positioning: Who are the current players & Where do you fit in the current ecosystem
5. Secret Sauce: Underlying Methodology/Technology
6. Time to Market: What’s it take to develop
7. Go to Market: Marketing and sales
8. Costs: Costs to Market & Launch
9. Summary and call to action
10. Thoughts?

As soon as I put that together, I send it by a handful of people and if they like the idea, I take the next step… implementation!