The Project

Julia forced herself to stop grouching and be more helpful. It wasn't his fault the air conditioning failed. "No, it's fine. Let's see if the meeting rooms are a bit cooler." She picked up her notebook and Steven followed obligingly.

The meeting room on the South side of the floor was only slightly cooler, but it would have to do. She took a seat at the end of the table and directed Steven to stand up the front. He connected his laptop to the projector and opened PowerPoint.

"Ok, let's see what you've got," she encouraged him. "I'll just listen the first time through and make notes."

"Um, now? Ok…" he cleared his voice and stood up straighter. "Good morning everyone. My name is Steven Moore and I'm a software engineer here at GenSoft. I'm here today to tell you about some software I developed which can convert images from a standard digital camera into a three-dimensional model." He clicked the mouse to start the PowerPoint presentation. Then he started talking enthusiastically about polygonal mesh templates, terrestrial albedo, client-side presentation and embedded flash code.

Julia was completely lost after the first ten seconds. She tried to take notes but soon realized it was pointless. "Steven, stop a minute."

He stopped and his face fell. "Was it that bad?" he asked dejectedly.

"No, you spoke very well," she reassured him. "Your presentation would be great if you were delivering it to a group of developers as knowledgeable as yourself."

"But I'm not presenting to developers."

"Exactly."

Understanding dawned in his face. "So you're saying I need to explain it in a way that managers will understand."

"Yes, that is important," Julia agreed. "But the most important thing is to keep in mind what you hope to achieve from this presentation. Is it your goal to educate management about 3d modeling?"

"It might help," he suggested uncertainly.

"But what is your primary goal?"

"Well…I want them to provide some funding and resources to develop my idea commercially." He leaned against the table and pushed the hair out of his eyes.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Julia drummed her fingers thoughtfully. " If you want people to invest in something you need get inside their heads and understand what motivates them. Most people don't need to know the technical details, they just need to know that you know the details."

"Really?" he asked, looking unconvinced.