I've always liked marketing. Super Bowl ads, posters, the flashy Apple commercials. What I enjoy most is how in a very short time they can show you the product and in a snap it becomes the thing you need most in your life.
How do you apply this power in the workplace?
With Engineers it's easy. I can describe a system in its own terms and they'll picture roughly what I'm picturing. Product is harder. The mechanism stops being the focus and it becomes about user flows, design, and value. Leadership is harder again, because now it's impact and dollars... and I get two minutes. Outside the company is hardest of all. There nobody owes me their attention.
What the good ones do
Apple made people feel different not just smart. The "Got Milk?" ads showed the painful frustrations of running out of milk. And when I look at why they work, it's the same thing both times: the product is barely in the pitch.
The product is missing on purpose, and the person watching fills the gap. They don't get told what it's for or why; they arrive at it all on their own. It becomes their idea that they need what you're selling. Like Inception, except for real.
Which brings me to the problem
I think slides are dead. ChatGPT taught people to ask for the answer in the shape they want it and nobody sits through long presentations anymore. Every layer up, the attention gets thinner. I need the other thing... a medium that can carry an idea to somebody who never asked. I don't know where you buy one.