What do like to see in a corporate tech talk?

January 3, 2016 3:15 PM

I volunteered to give a talk at a large company about a piece of software. Not sure how to do this.

I do lots of conference and meetup talks. I keep the tone light and jokey, put cute animal pictures in my slides, and move REALLY fast. It works for that environment, and people usually leave with a bit of knowledge and a smile, which is my only goal.

But now I've been asked to talk to 1000 people at a large, straight-laced corporation. It's about a particular, semi-obscure software package. I did not write the software, I'm just a normal user, so I don't have a ton of authority on the subject. Also, most of the attendees will be remote, so I won't be able to keep it conversational. Finally, it's over a lunch hour and I don't think they'll really be paying full attention.

I am not getting paid for this in any way. If they wanted a sales pitch, I assume they would have asked for someone from the company that makes the software -- their sales team would gladly fly out to such a big potential client. But they asked me instead.

I would love to work for this corporation someday (great reputation), so obviously I want to knock it out of the park. But I don't know how to do that.

Here are some of my ideas, hoping for feedback:

1) Spin up a copy of the software, and have attendees log in (it's web-based) and do simple exercises with it. I think this might add value since it's quite annoying and painful to do this yourself. Worried this would be a huge stretch for a 1-hour session though.

2) Do a traditional dry, boring list of the features of the software. I really, really don't want to do this. This is probably what they're expecting, it's what most software talks are like. Since I don't work for anyone, I have the freedom to talk about problems as well as benefits though.

3) Rather than talk about the details, talk about the market, adoption rates of the software, who's using it, what it's good for, what's coming in future versions. I can do lots of graphs of number of users, number of commits to the open source branch, number of google mentions, etc. I don't know if I can do this for a whole hour though.

Any advice? What would you like to see if I were talking at your company about a program you were thinking about investing in?

posted by miyabo to Work & Money (17 answers total)

"You do X. This tool will make it easier for you to do X because Y."

"You don't like doing Z. This tool will reduce the amount of Z you have to do because W."

Definitely not your option 3, unless there's some context missing that I'm completely failing to be able to imagine.
posted by PMdixon at 3:27 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Expanding on PMdixon's great comment above, I think the key is to tailor your presentation to the attendees.

1) With potentially 1,000 attendees, this corporation sounds like a medium-to-large company that may be publicly-traded. Find out as much as you can about the company's business, how it makes its revenue, what the business model is, what potential challenges the company faces. Even if it's not publicly-traded, a company of that size is likely to have media exposure. Read up on it.

2) Get in touch with the person who coordinated your presentation at the company. Ask them what areas of the company the employees work in. It's probable the attendees will be from several different divisions. However, getting feedback on the job responsibilities of the majority of the attendees will help you narrow your focus. People are interested in things that are relevant to them.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 3:50 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

If they are interested in buying the tool and you are a user, they're going to be interested in an honest look at:

1) Why do you use the software? Not so much what do you like about it, but what is unique about your needs and how (honestly) does it fit for you?

2) What other choices did you consider, and why?

3) What was it like to use? If it's enterprise software, how much process and business change was required?

4) How is your relationship with the vendor? Are they responsive? Do they involve you in the roadmap?

5) What doesn't work. Why would you advise against this software? Who shouldn't use it? What would be on your wish list?
posted by frumiousb at 3:52 PM on January 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

(And cynical pinnical's advice about finding out who will be there is great-- and will help you tailor all of the above.)
posted by frumiousb at 3:53 PM on January 3, 2016

Agree with the idea of doing a comparison between the software you are demoing and the current software in the field. Discuss strengths, weaknesses, etc. I always like smaller examples with a code snippet or two. One suggestion would be do not rely on anything working as it should (ie logging in) and have a backup ready. Also I would suggest multiple formats (online, as a powerpoint/pdf, etc) just to give you peace of mind going into the presentation.
posted by z11s at 3:53 PM on January 3, 2016

1) Spin up a copy of the software, and have attendees log in (it's web-based) and do simple exercises with it. I think this might add value since it's quite annoying and painful to do this yourself. Worried this would be a huge stretch for a 1-hour session though.

I teach practical workshops for some web services and there are always a zillion technical problems even for a few dozen people in-person. Having your attendees participate like this is a non-starter for this kind of audience.

A demo of you going through some exercises would be great though. Backups are key though! frumiousb has some great suggestions on other things to include besides the demo.

talk about the market, adoption rates of the software, who's using it, what it's good for

I have gone to presentations like this and I have absolutely hated them. None of this is information that most users will care about.
posted by grouse at 3:56 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

1. How steep is the learning curve?
2. Is it pleasant to use or annoying?
3. How much setup is involved?
4. Can you customize it for your own situation?
5 Can you use it for stuff the designers never thought of?
6 How good is the documentation and customer support?
7. Does it link to software or databases you already have?
posted by SemiSalt at 4:08 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I sell software for a living and I try to avoid live demos whenever possible as way too much can go wrong when it's just me. I definitely wouldn't try to coordinate 1000 people logging in, you'll never get past the welcome screen in 60 minutes.

How did you get asked to do this? If somebody saw you at a meetup them they may have liked your normal style. You might want to button it down a little bit, but I wouldn't completely change my style for this.

Like they said above, find out what they want (very specifically) from this presentation, and go from there, keeping it as simple as possible and not straying too far from who you are normally when you present.
posted by COD at 4:21 PM on January 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am not getting paid for this in any way. ... But they asked me instead. ... I would love to work for this corporation someday

I would caution you that what you're telling the potential employer is that you'll work for free and that you won't push back when asked to do inappropriate things. Leading an hour long seminar for 1000 people is something that I'd bill a corporation $500-2000+ for, depending on how much work was involved in creating the content. This isn't speaking at a conference or meetup, this is creating custom work for the exclusive benefit of a company that will profit from your effort.

I don't have a ton of authority on the subject.

This sounds like something to defer on and diplomatically refer them to the sales team for the product. You're not an expert on the product and you're going to have a bored and disengaged remote audience. It sounds like a recipe for failure that you can't control and risks leaving you with a bad reputation with a company that you want to work for.
posted by Candleman at 4:28 PM on January 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Seconding grouse. I also give that kind of hands-on workshop on the regs because of my job and unless you can be assured that all 1000 attendees are expert level computer users, don't do this. Most people don't even want this kind of experience and would rather they never have to touch a computer ever in their working lives let alone spend a lunch hour trying to work with unfamiliar programs. When I give workshops (granted my audience is a demographic notorious for not being good with computers) the implicit understanding is that what my audience really wants is for someone to do all this for them, but since that isn't in the cards, we're going to get through this traumatic situation (hands-on work in an unfamiliar application) together. We cap these workshops at 25 attendees but realistically anything over 15 can get untenable due to everyone's individual technical problems.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:34 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I would caution you that what you're telling the potential employer is that you'll work for free and that you won't push back when asked to do inappropriate things.

I think this depends on the context. We regularly ask for information and give information to other companies while in the middle of a RFP process. If what was asked for is decision making input for a RFP from a fellow user, then compensation isn't customary. You'd pay for travel, have a small gift, probably take the person out to dinner whatever. I often sent coworkers for this kind of information sharing and asked for them in return. If it really is a "seminar" then I agree compensation would be in order.
posted by frumiousb at 5:18 PM on January 3, 2016

We regularly ask for information and give information to other companies while in the middle of a RFP process.

Perhaps this is a cultural difference, but with 13+ years in IT in the US, I've never heard of anyone giving a presentation on someone else's software to 1,000 people via web conferencing for free. I've been the SME called in to offer consulting on whether or not to purchase third party products I had experience with and charged $100+/hour for my time, and that was in the context of a small team asking my opinion on various products in person. I've also benefited from bringing in consultants on products, again, paying for them. Perhaps if there was a quid pro quo going on with two companies I could see this as acceptable, but that's not the case here.

To frame it another way, the company in question is proposing to spend $40,000+ hours of time on this web conference (assuming $20/hour plus benefits per worker in the US). It's inappropriate to ask someone to lead that for free.
posted by Candleman at 5:42 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: For better or worse, I've already agreed to do this. I do have a very well paid day job where it would be frowned upon to take on an external consulting contract, so it's really totally fine to do this for free... as long as I can do a halfway decent job....
posted by miyabo at 5:43 PM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

1. Who's your audience? I'm going to assume the large company is Google, just so I can have some specifics to work with. 1000 people might sound like a lot, but for places like Google, you basically have four kinds of employees: support staff, PM/project managers, engineers/designers, and management. Google has roughly 60k employees, and so 1k can still be a fairly specific niche. Think about who is likely to attend your talk some.

If your target is engineers: talk about how it works and why it works. If you've forked Varnish and implemented a new, better caching rule, they'll want to know how the algorithm works, why it might theoretically improve upon LRU, and whether it does in practice. You could tell people how to set it up, but frankly, that is really boring stuff, and the sort of thing run in 8 hour workshops at major conferences costing multiple thousands per seat.

If your target is managers: like many large companies, Google practices OKRs: objectives, key results. Objectives are delegated from above, and the employee crafts key results with which to meet those objectives. Notably, managers are good enough at that to earn a promotion. As such, you want to emphasize results, and how the software can reduce costs, improve revenue, etc.

If your target is product/project managers: you only need to give a vague impression of why it's useful, but also provide implementation schedules, service dependencies, and major risks associated with the software.

In all three cases, data collected is often persuasive. Also, if your target is support staff: you're running a training session and should be paid handsomely for it.

2. What's your objective? It sounds like you might like to work for the company some day, so we'll say your goal is to impress key managers and engineers that they want you on team Google. It doesn't sound like you're there to sell the product, but at some level you do have a conflict of interest: if they don't adopt the platform your expertise in it is worthless to them.

3. What do they want? If a purchase is being considered, what they want is information the vendor is withholding. If they're considering implementing their own, knowing the theory of operation is useful. Maybe they just want to record and upload your talk as a recruiting tool, implicitly stating "Look at all the techtalks we regularly invite to the firm!"

Presumably someone within the firm invited you, and you should send them some followup questions.
posted by pwnguin at 5:43 PM on January 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: It's not Google, but I think they are basing this speaker series on Google Tech Talks. The company is large and prestigious, but nowhere near Google-level.
posted by miyabo at 6:23 PM on January 3, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks so much everyone. This really, really helped. Not super scared of this anymore.
posted by miyabo at 9:06 PM on January 3, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks all, the talk went really well. The key was finding someone who worked at the company (through Google) and cold-calling them -- they gave me a TON of detailed information about what they'd like in a guest talk, and I followed it to the letter. I don't think it was "worth it" in any kind of a cost/benefit way but it was an interesting experience and kind of fun.
posted by miyabo at 5:35 PM on January 26, 2016