Change my mind: PowerPoint or Word?

Sometimes I joke with my team that, if there’s one thing I can do as a product manager to add value, it is to anger them. In other words, I try to incite passion in our team to make the right decisions. Because, at the core of product management is the job to communicate and deliver on a vision. Every product manager will have other responsibilities depending on the team and the company, but all of those product managers must, at the very least, lead their team to succeed in the market.

How one communicates that vision depends on the processes and culture of the company. For 8 years at IBM and Wells Fargo, my main tool of communication was PowerPoint. Since joining Amazon in November, my main tool has been Word. While 7 months is not nearly enough time to become an expert in the prose required to succeed at communicating through documents, five 6+ page documents is enough to observe differences. I will share those observations along with my own perspective on what tool works well.

Preparing the presentation

I’ll start by saying no matter which tool a product manager uses, the same work and effort must be done to get there. The product manager must complete the same research, work with the same people across teams, and arrive at a clear strategy.?

Based on my experience, slides take about 3 hours to get to a first draft then maybe 4 more hours of iteration after multiple presentations. The hard part lies in deciding what will be spoken, which I find to be relatively easy because I work out the messaging while building the slides. Often I will already have slides in other presentations that I can just copy and paste into what I’m making. When I want to collaborate on a presentation with somebody else, they might spend 30 minutes building the slide for their speaking piece.

A document takes far longer to write. A 6+ page document will take me a week to write. Each iteration requires co-workers at least 30 minutes to read my document and comment on every aspect of it from the overall message to the minute details along with the grammar and structure. This process is slow. Not only is it slow, but the extremely detailed comments can feel discouraging, especially after spending a week getting it to a point that I feel proud enough to share. When I want to collaborate on a document with somebody else, both of us need to work out exactly where their piece fits in and how their words will read in a similar style as mine.

Despite the time it takes to write documents, I do immensely appreciate how it forces authors to consider every aspect of the topic they’re explaining. I am the first to admit that my strength is not in the details. I like thinking broadly, 5 years ahead. With a document, I cannot use pretty pictures in slides and eloquent speeches to paint big visions that hide the lack of small details; the sheer detail required in 6+ pages of Word necessitates authors to consider every decision. I must back up all assertions with an appendix of my full analysis. Those appendices sometimes expand documents from 6 pages to 26 pages. I feel like I’m back in college writing a lab report. When I read somebody else’s document, it’s obvious the amount of thinking that went into the topic. Their expertise on the subject can never be disputed because the document forced them to validate everything.

Telling a story

Nothing can replace a story told using visuals and tone of voice. Slides and, beyond that, the act of speaking a presentation allows the presenter to use timing and suspense to bring a point home. Granted, this value can only be achieved when the slides are presented well. Public speaking, like writing, is a skill that comes naturally for some, but must be trained for most.

Documents and slides both require training. Amazon requires all interviewees to write a short document before joining the company to ensure basic skills at clearly articulating an idea through written form. New employees then go through a couple hours of training learning the company’s writing style. This sort of training does not exist for companies that use PowerPoint, but should. Poorly prepared and presented slides will never effectively communicate an idea.

Documents do give every presenter a loud voice in the moment. Not only that, the author gets the opportunity to complete their thoughts without interruption. Too few PowerPoint presentations do not make it to the ending slide.

Driving decisions

Not making it to the last slide does have value though. I find that driving consensus through slides happens more quickly. The presenter can read the audience during the entire presentation to know which details to linger on and which ones ought to be adjusted. You have the opportunity to improve the presentation in realtime. How does this relate to product management? Because the presentation is your strategy. You will know almost immediately if it resonates and have the opportunity within that meeting to adjust and iterate, ask questions along the way, and move to different slides that you may not have known to focus on.?

When presenting a document, the author does not know how the audience perceives the message until 30 minutes in. After that, they must spend another 30 minutes or more wading through all types of comments and questions. I personally struggle driving consensus after a document review. On the bright side, I receive comments on the document that I would not have received if I presented slides. For those in the audience who do not feel comfortable speaking up with a comment or question, they can write it down in line. Reading a document feels more universal than listening to a presentation.

Sharing broadly

Documents last far longer than slides too. For those who could not attend a meeting, were not invited to the meeting, or did not pay attention during the entire presentation, reviewing slides without speaker notes is challenging. One does not capture the same understanding as if they heard it from the source. Documents tell the same story no matter what. Well written documents can be shared with anybody interested in the topic and lead to far less mis-interpretation.

My perspective

I must admit that I love using PowerPoint. When the concept of “flow” became something everybody ought to search for in a job to find true happiness, I discovered with some embarrassment that building slides was how I got into flow. Yet, I’ve also found flow in writing documents over the past 7 months. Once I get into the groove and feel inspired, I enjoy crafting a message through prose. I enjoy the challenge of painting pretty pictures using words. Because, at the end of the day, I like telling stories. But which tool would I use? The answer is both.

The product lifecycle has multiple milestones from market and problem definition, to determining a solution, to analyzing after launch. Parts of that cycle require extreme critical thinking and in depth analysis, while other parts require discussions, quick decisions, and motivation. When a decision must be thoroughly explained, I prefer using Word. When I want to incite discussion or emotion, I prefer using PowerPoint. While a problem feels more vague at the start of the product lifecycle, I believe it makes more sense to use slides. Time and consensus is most important in the beginning so not to delay development. As the team iterates on what to build, that vision should become crisp and clear, thus a document would be my preferred tool for communication, especially so it can be shared more broadly. And after developing and launching a product, analysis is best read through Word.

The size of a product team might also impact which tool makes most sense. On a team with one product manager to one development squad, the product manager may have the benefit of time to write multiple detailed documents. However, when a team is strapped for product managers who are forced to work across multiple parts of a portfolio, requiring long documents could overwhelm them. At the end of the day though, product managers must use the communication tool that makes them and their team most successful. My preferences might not be yours and that’s ok. Each individual must choose for themselves what tool helps incite the most passion in making the right decisions, on time.