Steve Jobs (28 page)

tech this is.”

At this point, Apple representatives who had been positioned

at the end of each row handed audience members samples of

the aluminum frames to pass around. As people touched and

examined the frames for themselves, Jobs joked, “We need them

back,” eliciting a laugh from the audience. For the next sixty

seconds, Jobs did not say a word. He let the product speak for

itself.

Jobs then channeled his inner John Madden and provided

color commentary as the audience members continued to exam-

ine the frames: “Teams of hundreds of people have worked on

this for many, many months to figure out how to design these

things and manufacture them economically. This is a tour de

force of engineering.”

Jobs remained silent for the next thirty seconds until every-

one had a chance to handle the frames. “OK. A precision

unibody enclosure. You’re the first to get your hands on one,”

Jobs said as he closed the section and moved on to another fea-

ture of the new notebooks.1
Using props, Jobs had transformed what could have been a boring explanation into an interesting,

multisensory experience.

Kawasaki Method

Jobs introduces stage props in every presentation, usually dur-

ing demonstrations. In
The Macintosh Way
, Guy Kawasaki writes

that master communicators give good demo. “The right demo

doesn’t cost much,” he points out, “but it can counteract your

competitors’ marketing and advertising. A great demo informs

the audience about your product, communicates the benefits of

owning your product, and inspires the audience to take action.
”2

Kawasaki describes the five qualities of an outstanding demon-

stration. According to Kawasaki, good demos are as follows:

STAGE YOUR PRESENTATION WITH PROPS
139


Short.
A good demo does not suck the wind out of your audience.


Simple.
A good demo is simple and easy to follow. “It should communicate no more than one or two key messages. The goal

is to show the audience enough to get them tantalized but not

so much that they get bewildered.
”3


Sweet.
A good demo “shows the hottest features and differen-

tiates your product from the competition’s.” There’s more: “You

have to show real functionality, though. Imagine that every

time you show a feature someone shouts, ‘So what?’ ”
4


Swift.
A good demo is fast paced. “Never do anything in a

demo that lasts more than fifteen seconds.
”5


Substantial.
A good demo clearly demonstrates how your

product offers a solution to a real-world problem your audi-

ence is experiencing. “Customers want to do things with your

product, so they want to know how the product works.
”6

As noted in Scene 9, Jobs nailed all of Kawasaki’s conditions

for a good demo when he launched the iPhone 3G at the WWDC

in October 2008. The phone ran on the faster, 3G cellular net-

works, an upgrade to the second-generation (2G) wireless data

networks. Jobs’s words from the presentation are listed in the

left column of Table 12.1, and the right column describes the

corresponding slid
es.7

In a brief demo, Jobs had met Kawasaki’s criteria for a great

demo.


It’s short.
The EDGE-versus-3G demo lasted less than two

minutes.


It’s simple.
What could be more simple than showing two

websites loading on a smartphone? That was as complicated as

it got.


It’s sweet.
Jobs placed the 3G network in a head-to-head face-off with its primary competitor, the EDGE network.


It’s swift.
Jobs keeps the demo moving but remains silent at

critical points to build the drama.


It’s substantial.
The demo resolves a real-world problem: waiting an excruciatingly long time for graphically rich sites to load.

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

TABLE 12.1
JOBS’S GREAT DEMO AT THE 2008 WWDC

STEVE’S WORDS

STEVE’S SLIDES

”Why do you want 3G? Well, you want

Photographs of two icons: one

it for faster data downloads. And

represents the Internet, and the

there’s nowhere you want faster data

second represents e-mail

downloads than the browser and

downloading e-mail attachments.”

“So, let’s take a look at the browser.

Animated image of two

We’ve taken an iPhone 3G and, at the

iPhones loading a website

same place and same location, we’ve

simultaneously: the same

downloaded a website on the EDGE

National Geographic website

network and one using 3G.”

begins loading on each; the left

iPhone is on the EDGE network,

and the one on the right is using

the new iPhone 3G network

“Let’s see how we do.” [Jobs remains

Website loading on both iPhone

silent as both images continue to load

images

on the screen; it’s a site with a lot of

images and a complex layout]

“Twenty-one seconds on 3G; [waits

3G site has completely loaded,

silently for an additional thirty seconds,

while EDGE phone is still

crossing his hands in front of his body,

loading

smiling, watching the audience—

elicits laughs] fifty-nine seconds on

EDGE. Same phone, same location:

3G is 2.8 times faster. It’s approaching

Wi-Fi speeds. It’s amazingly zippy!”

History-Making Demo

Demonstrations and props play a role in every Steve Jobs pre-

sentation, some of which are more history-making than others.

“We’re going to make some history today,” Steve Jobs said as he

kicked off Macworld 2007. The history-making event was the

introduction of the iPhone:

“We want to reinvent the phone,” Jobs said. “I want to show

you four things: the phone app, photos, calendar, and SMS

STAGE YOUR PRESENTATION WITH PROPS
141

text messaging [texting between two cell phones]—the kind of

things you would find on a typical phone—in a very untypical

way. So, let’s go ahead and take a look.” As he always does, Jobs

walked to stage right (the audience’s left) to sit down and con-

duct the demo, giving the audience a clear view of the screen.

“You see that icon in the lower-left corner of the phone? I just

push it, and boom, I have the phone. Now I’m in Contacts. How

do I move around Contacts? I just scroll through them. Let’s say

I want to place a call to Jony Ive. I just push here, and I see Jony

Ive’s contact with all his information. If I want to call Jony, all

I do is push his number. I’ll call his mobile number right now.”

The phone rings, and Ive picks up to say hello.

Jobs continued, “It’s been two and a half years, and I can’t

tell you how thrilled I am to make the first public phone call

with iPhone.” At this point in the demo, Apple’s VP of corpo-

rate marketing, Phil Schiller, calls in. Jobs places Ive on hold and

conferences in the two callers to demonstrate one-click confer-

encing. Jobs proceeds to demonstrate the SMS texting function,

followed by the photo package that came standard in the iPhone.

“We have the coolest photo management app ever—certainly

on a mobile device, but I think maybe ever.” Jobs then shows off

the capabilities of the photo gallery, using his fingers to widen,

pinch, and manipulate the images. “Pretty cool,” he says. “Isn’t

this awesome?
”8
Jobs appeared genuinely thrilled with the new features and, as he often does when demonstrating new products, looked like a kid in a candy store.

Having Fun with Demos

Don’t forget to have fun with demos. Jobs certainly does. He

concluded the iPhone demonstration by showing how to put

Google Maps to work on the device. He searched for a Starbucks

in San Francisco near Moscone West, the site of the conference.

A list of Starbucks stores appeared on the phone, and Jobs said,

“Let’s give them a call.” A Starbucks employee picked up and

said, “Good morning. Starbucks. How can I help you?”

“Yes,” said Jobs. “I’d like to order four thousand lattes to

go, please. No, just kidding. Wrong number. Good-bye.
”9
This

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

Props Galore for an Italian TV Host

I’m always looking for communicators who, like Jobs, push the

envelope and create exciting ways to engage an audience. I’ve

rarely seen anyone use more props than a young Italian entre-

preneur and television host, Marco Montemagno.

Montemagno frequently speaks on the topic of Internet

culture, showing Italians why the Internet should be embraced

and not feared. He presents to groups as large as three thou-

sand people in places such as Rome, Milan, and Venice. Since

the majority of people in his audience are Web novices, he uses

language that everyone can understand (well, assuming you

know Italian). His slides are very simple and visual; he often

employs just photographs, animation, and video. But what truly

differentiates Montemagno from the majority of presenters is

his unbelievable number of props and demonstrations. Here

are three guidelines he follows to create dynamic moments:

1. Give your audience something to do.
Montemagno’s

audience members get a pen and paper before taking their

seats. During the presentation, he asks them to turn to the

person next to them and, in thirty seconds, sketch the per-

son’s portrait. After that, he asks them to write the title of

their favorite song, movie, and so forth. They then pass the

paper around, continuing until each paper has changed

hands up to five times. Everyone eventually takes home a

piece of paper that once belonged to someone else. The

exercise is intended to demonstrate how information is

shared among individuals across networks.

2. Ask someone to share the stage.
In other parts of his

presentation, Montemagno will ask for volunteers to join

him onstage. In one exercise, he asks them to fold a T-shirt.

Most people will take about twenty seconds and fold the

shirt in a conventional way. When they’re done, he shows

a popular YouTube video of someone demonstrating how

to fold a shirt in five seconds. Montemagno then dupli-

cates the feat as the audience cheers. His point is that the

STAGE YOUR PRESENTATION WITH PROPS
143

Internet can instruct on a deep, intellectual level, but it can

also make the most mundane tasks easier.

3. Make use of your skills onstage.
Montemagno is a former

world-ranked table tennis player and works that unique skill

into his presentations. He invites another professional player

onstage, and the two hit the ball back and forth quickly and

effortlessly. As they do, Montemagno, speaking into a wire-

less headset, compares table tennis to the Internet.

Steve Jobs has elevated presentations to an art form, but

few of us will ever introduce a product as world-changing as

a revolutionary new computer. This fact is all the more reason

to find new, exciting ways to engage your audience. To see

video clips of Montemagno in action, visit his site
: http://mon