Show and Tell originally started when we were 5 to 10 people, and it was literally a meeting every Friday where everyone sat around the table and each person either showed or talked about the work that they’d done that week. As the company continued to grow and scale, it started to become infeasible to have each person present, but at the same time, we knew it was important that everyone at the company had literacy and understanding on all parts of the business, so we started having specific presentations. While these were useful, they also started regularly running long and causing the meeting to go over time. We tried adding 5-minute time limits, but even then, some presentations were kind of going off the rails and turning into inspirational talks rather than communicating anything about the content of the work done. To get things back on track, we created and started sharing these guidelines with every single presenter ahead of their presentation, and we found that they really helped anchor people in talking about the problem, the way that the work was solved, and the impact of that work.

Show & Tell was consistently referenced as people's favorite meeting they ever had, and this document was a guiding light for keeping that bar high.

It’s really crucial that there’s a specific DRI for these meetings: there has to be a person who’s excited about it, and really cares about making it better each week. It realistically can’t be the CEO or someone on leadership, since they’re too busy and they just don’t have the necessary time to iterate on it. As someone who was the DRI for our Show and Tell presentations, in this clip, I talk through some of the things that I found important for consistently improving how we approached these, including the stated mission of the meeting; the outline of what it would include; company feedback; and my weekly review and feedback process with each presenter. At the end of the day, this meeting is like any other product: you have to constantly iterate on it.

Over time, other internal folks in learning & development and employee brand stepped up to own the process of working with presenters each and every week, and then helped evolve this document and process over the years (shout out to Kari and Kaitlyn!)

A good Show and Tell presentation would start with a really clearly defined problem and an explanation of why solving it is important. It’s one thing to talk about a problem, but it’s another thing to make it accessible in a way that lets everyone at the company understand why it matters. So a good presentation wouldn’t assume context; for example, it wouldn’t be full of acronyms that people don’t get.

After that context is in place, it’s just as important to give a really clear walkthrough of the work that’s actually been done to solve the problem. It’s even better if you can follow this up with clear examples of the impact of the work, which is something that I found was missing sometimes even from otherwise good presentations. And finally, it’s useful to bring things together with a clear call to action that lets everyone at the company know what they should do with this information now that they’ve got it—this might be a change in approach for their work, a lesson they can learn from and apply in their own context, or even a request for specific feedback.

There are certain teams where there’s not net-new work being done on a regular basis, and that can occasionally lead to presentations where there’s no real tangible impact or takeaway, which is something we really wanted to avoid. A function like customer success is a good example here. A bad presentation there might look like someone who was relatively new to that function just saying, “I didn’t know anything about this product and these customers, and here’s what I learned about them, and the process I used to get there.” A good one would walk through a specific situation with a customer and clearly show how the team identified their problem and solved it.

Show and Tell became a really important meeting for our company, and I think it was easy for people to fall back on thinking, “I’m on stage, I need to help teach everyone at the company a lesson.” But that’s not really the point. The point was to communicate the work you’d done and the impact on our team and/or customers.

Matt Bilotti

Show and Tell meetings were a key part of the culture at Drift, but as the team grew, we needed a structure in place to make sure they continued to be valuable.

Keeping the bar and level high at Show and Tell is super important for engagement, morale, and transparency across the whole company.

Show and Tell started as a way for every person at the company to share that they worked on and show it off. As we grew, that turned into each team presenting. This is a chance for you to show your work at a company level and should be taken seriously, hence the guidelines and DRI format below.

The intention of Show & Tell is to end the week together as a company by sharing and highlighting the work our different teams are doing and the impact on our customers and our business.

As a result, this enables us to maintain transparency and learning across departments as we grow.

Focus on work and show impact (for the customer and the business): 

First and foremost, Show & Tell is about sharing the work you and your team have done and the results of that work.

Don't just give us an update on how your team is doing or what they're doing. Show (and tell) us something new and novel in your own unique way

: Avoid lists of 10 things going on in your department. Think about the core takeaway based on a customer story, a process change, something you built/shipped, etc and craft your story around that.

: Strong presentations identify a problem facing our customers or team, outline the process taken to solve it, and present a conclusion that has metrics and/or real results attached to it. Remember that a story is always more powerful than a theme or growth lesson! 5. 

Please just tell us who you are and what you do at Drift then get straight into the story.

This is an opportunity present in front of some of the brightest minds in tech. Put in the effort and practice your slides ahead of time. Bring your A game

Rather than something the company is already well aware of. This should be a presentation that helps the rest of the company learn about what you are doing and why it matters, rather than a rehash of a prior story or takeaway.

You have the floor with the eyes and ears of the entire company. Spend time on making sure what you have is legit and thoughtful. Play around with the format. Some teams have done fake podcasts, skits, audience participation, etc. Just make sure to have a CTA at the end. 9. 

Focus on what matters and has large impact. Don't ramble on small details. And don't feel like you need to use the full 5 minutes if you can do it in less time

You are speaking to folks in every discipline of the company. Avoid jargon or a story targeted to a specific group of people. Speak to everyone in the room.

2022 Google Slides Template [link redacted]

What does it mean to be your team's DRI for Show and Tell?

As the DRI for your team, you make sure that your team has a presenter ready each week and that they have reviewed the guidelines above. The quality and focus of their presentation is yours to support and drive for the team. You should share these guidelines and give them guidance on how to give an amazing Show and Tell presentation. DRIs can leverage this deck [link redacted] to provide their teams (especially new presenters) with an overview of why we have Show & Tell, what's expected, and some keywords for success.

How should teams select the presenter each week?

A rotation or schedule is okay, but not required. You should 

pick a person to do it at random. This is a chance for someone or a team to showcase something specific that they did. The person should be selected based on having something to showcase. 

How to submit questions in advance in Tinypulse [link redacted]

A little bit about telling a good story at Show and Tell:

How to identify a story that is "worth presenting":

Remember that Show and Tell is about work that has been done.

Think of recent problems you solved and had to find or build a solution to

This is not about presenting a topic or concept that is "top of mind"

How to talk about this to a broad or generalized audience:

It's about the solution to this problem. Results should be framed up as an answer to the problem you present. 

What did you build to solve it? What happened once you did that thing?

This can be metrics or other results (anecdotal)

The best presenters take a complex concept and make it simple and easy to understand even if you know nothing about the work. 

Use examples and metaphors to help you do this.

How to have a powerful AF call to action:

When you outline your story, see what theme is tying it all together

The CTA can be that theme (e.g. understand what your customer needs)

OR it can be specific to the area itself (e.g. an ask for product feedback)

The CTA helps people take the story you've shared and put it into action

Be specific and keep it singular (1-2 CTAs at most)

Show and Tell Meeting Guidelines at Drift

Show and Tell Guidelines

Presentation Guidelines:

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