Comment by grvdrm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by grvdrm | Hacker News Reader

This was a refreshing read, and a solid reminder.

I'm working through an executive communication pickle as I write this. My (startup) CEO is a slide perfectionist who never likes any deck he sees the first time. And he's critical of decks in subsequent passes as well. I'm responsible for revising our company pitch deck with "fresh eyes" as I'm relatively new to the company.

Have had to remind myself multiple times that his feedback is not bad, or wrong, or too critical, at least not 100% of the time. And instead that I should reason through how to integrate that feedback or find a way to meet somewhere in the middle while properly describing why I am choosing a different path.

The learning process never ends!

Perhaps unprofessional advice but having dealt with my fair share of perfectionist CTO's/VPs, when dealing with hypercritical types, if I have to deliver any creative output for review then my strategy is to add "low-hanging fruit" that I know will no be aligned with what they want or even small typos.

That usually gives them something to focus on and then only what really needs to change will bubble up from their feedback.

Exactly this. I've found many CTOs/VPs that want to feel like they have contributed.

Give them something to focus on and they'll generally not rip the rest apart.

Same goes for designs, have an element in an odd color or font, and it'll be picked up and corrected. Without it you may find yourself redesigning huge swathes of the design.

Also called the Duck-strategy, point 5 on this list: https://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/

Fascinating suggestion.

Let me toss a q back to you: when you work that strategy for a deck, do you subsequently send it first and gather feedback, or do you prefer to talk through it with that person? I've always preferred talking through presentation drafts as I feel the "talk-track" is the essential piece, not the particulars of the slides. But curious to hear what you've done in past or now

Don't ever let them find out you do it deliberately. This is quite disrespectful use of their time.

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