# moghe-need-presentation-never-send-slides-2026-09-08

## Veille

First article in the **Never Send The Slides** series on martinfowler.com, published on **September 8, 2026** (~2,400 words, five sections and two sidebars), authored by **Sumeet Gayathri Moghe**, global head of culture and organisational design at **Thoughtworks**; **Martin Fowler** provided editorial review. The text first lays out a definition — *« a presentation is an act of storytelling in which a presenter orchestrates narrative, timing, and emotion to create meaning that neither visuals nor documents can achieve on their own »* — and its corollary: *« the slides are not the presentation »*. From this it derives a hierarchy of five artifacts, condensed at the end into a *cheat sheet* table. **(1)** The **linear document**, sufficient in most business situations where the only goal is to convey information. **(2)** The **infodeck** — the term is Fowler's — when the content has a long shelf life and deserves visual care. **(3)** **Applications web interactives**, to manage the reader's cognitive load. **(4)** **Recorded audio or video**, when the voice matters but not the interaction. **(5)** The **live presentation**, reserved for cases where synchronous presence serves to influence and address objections in real time. Two observations date the text to 2026: **coding harnesses** put the creation of interactive applications within reach of non-developers, and a linear document *« reduces the probability of hallucinations »* when a reader has an LLM summarize it. Same source as [[boeckeler-harness-engineering-coding-agents-2026-04-02]].

## Titre Article

Do you even need a presentation?

## Date

2026-09-08

## URL

https://martinfowler.com/articles/never-send-slides/need-presentation.html

## Keywords

presentation, slides, slideware, storytelling, linear document, structured writing, self-contained artifact, infodeck, slidedoc, Duarte, slideument, information design, applications web interactives, cognitive load, microcourse, coding harnesses, non-developers, artifact lifespan, recorded video, builds and transitions, chaptering, live presentation, synchronous presence, coordination cost, asynchronous communication, async-first, Thoughtworks, Martin Fowler, Grammarly, Keynote, LLM hallucination

## Authors

Sumeet Gayathri Moghe (global head of culture and organisational design, Thoughtworks), publié sur martinfowler.com ; relecture éditoriale de Martin Fowler.

## Ton

**Profile**: professional advice article, first installment of an educational series. Audience: corporate executives and *knowledge workers* who produce internal communication materials. Careful English, short sentences, no technical jargon — the only term of art, *infodeck*, is defined and attributed.

**Style**: the structure **is** the argument — the text descends a scale from lightest to most costly (document → infodeck → web app → recording → live), and each tier opens with the condition that triggers it rather than with its description. The demonstration proceeds through artifacts shown, not described: the diagram library from his book, a travel journal laid out by his son, a filterable word cloud, an embedded microcourse, his own videos. The author quantifies his examples (**129 builds** in 8 minutes, **141** in 24) and then immediately defuses the metric — *« there's no formula for the right number of builds »*. Tradeoffs are laid out at every tier: web apps lose the inline commentary of wikis, infodecks are expensive in design skill, whose scarcity explains why most fail.

**Epistemic stance**: prescriptive and explicitly situated — the author writes from the *async-first* position whose handbook he has published, and notes that he is not a software engineer, which bounds his estimate of the shelf life of the applications he builds. The acknowledgments section lists seven reviewers, and states the use of Grammarly for proofreading and Claude to verify that feedback was addressed.

## Pense-betes

- **The definition, and its corollary.** A presentation is *« an act of storytelling in which a presenter orchestrates narrative, timing, and emotion »* to create meaning that neither visuals nor documents achieve alone. Hence: the slides are not the presentation, and the presentation is a tool of influence kept for the moments where it lands.
- **The default rule**: in most business scenarios, the only goal is to convey information — a document suffices. Slideware used as a documentary format forces the reader to consume information *« in fragmented, disconnected bursts »*, whereas a linear structure lets the reader build their own understanding.
- **What the linear format forces and slides allow.** Decks leave things unsaid between slides; in an asynchronous setting, that produces misunderstandings and lost context. Linear writing forces the bridging of sections — and this explicitness **reduces the probability of hallucination** if the reader feeds the document to an LLM.
- **Writing tools as an IDE**: Word, Hemingway, or Grammarly make it possible to *codify* a targeted style and readability level, the way an IDE plugin assists a developer.
- **The sidebar « slideware as a companion tool »**: make the diagrams in Keynote, then import them into the document. Slideware remains the familiar drawing interface; it doesn't have to become the delivery format.
- **Infodeck** (Martin Fowler's term): laid out in a slide interface for *light reading*, text and visuals juxtaposed. It is **neither a slideument nor a presentation deck**. Duarte Design calls it a *slidedoc* and publishes a pattern catalogue for it.
- **The three conditions for a successful infodeck**: writing first (produced in a writing tool, not in the deck); brevity that doesn't sacrifice understanding (*« I'd have written a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time »*); and above all design — the scarcity of design sense among *knowledge workers* is the reason most infodecks fail, and the main cost line item is the information designer.
- **Applications web interactives**: over the past year, coding harnesses have put HTML/CSS/JS within reach of non-developers. Interactivity serves to *shift the audience's cognitive load onto the artifact* — filtering a word cloud, chunking a long article into a microcourse with reflection questions.
- **Their often-forgotten tradeoff**: wikis and collaborative documents have native inline commentary; adding it to every app is extra cost. An interactive but *stateless* app is barely better than a one-way information transfer. On top of that comes the question of hosting and shelf life.
- **Recording before live.** A well-written monologue, with no visuals at all, is often enough (the example given is Ed Zitron). Recording forces you to cut the fat; the audience picks their own moment, speeds up, slows down, replays; subtitles and chaptering do the rest. The stated conclusion: *« most presentations are better off as recordings »*.
- **A video's rhythm isn't a room's**: at 30 frames per second, nobody waits on static slides — builds and transitions have to come much faster than in person. His benchmarks: 129 builds over 8 minutes in voice-over (which he still considers slow), 141 over 24 minutes when he's on camera. No formula, only the tempo the narrative demands.
- **When to go live**: only when synchronous presence is the point — influencing, addressing objections in real time, pitching a client, celebrating, rallying a group. Reserve it for situations that **merit the coordination cost**, and prepare all the more carefully since the audience can neither speed you up nor slow you down.

## RésuméDe400mots

Sumeet Gayathri Moghe, global head of culture and organisational design at Thoughtworks, opens a series on martinfowler.com titled "Never Send The Slides" with an article that asks the prior question: do you even need a presentation? He begins by separating two things usage conflates — the file and the act. A presentation, he writes, is an act of storytelling in which a presenter orchestrates narrative, pacing, and emotion to create meaning that neither visuals nor documents can achieve alone. The corollary is sharp: the slides are not the presentation. Since a presentation is a powerful tool of influence, you get the most out of it by reserving it for the moments that justify it.

What follows is a five-artifact scale, summarized at the end of the article in a table. The default rule is the linear document: in most business situations, the only goal is to convey information, and slideware used as a documentary format forces fragmented reading. A well-structured document — headings, short paragraphs, lists, tables, diagrams — lets the reader build their own understanding, and its explicitness reduces the risk of hallucination when an LLM summarizes it. Writing tools make it possible to codify a targeted style and readability level, the way an IDE plugin assists a developer.

Second tier, the infodeck — the term is Martin Fowler's: a document laid out in a slide interface, meant for light reading, neither a slideument nor a presentation deck. Its appeal lies in the tool's accessibility to anyone who doesn't master InDesign; the real cost is design, whose scarcity explains why most infodecks fail. Third tier, Applications web interactives: coding harnesses that have emerged over the past year put them within reach of non-developers, and interactivity serves to manage the reader's cognitive load. Their drawback is the lack of inline commentary, plus hosting and an uncertain shelf life.

Fourth tier, recording. A monologue with no visuals is sometimes enough; recording forces conciseness, lets the audience choose their own pace, and gains subtitles and chaptering. Moghe cautions that a video's tempo isn't a room's — 129 builds in eight minutes, 141 in twenty-four — without turning that into a rule. His conclusion: most presentations would be better off as recordings. What remains is live, to be reserved for moments where synchronous presence serves to influence and address objections, and which merit the coordination cost they impose on everyone.

## GrapheDeConnaissance

- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —travaille_chez→ Thoughtworks (ORGANISATION, 0.98)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —publie→ Never Send The Slides (DOCUMENT, 0.97)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —publie→ The Async-First Playbook (DOCUMENT, 0.9)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —affirme_que→ "The slides are not the presentation" (CITATION, 0.96)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —affirme_que→ "A presentation is an act of storytelling in which a presenter orchestrates narrative, timing, and emotion" (CITATION, 0.95)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —affirme_que→ "Most presentations are better off as recordings" (CITATION, 0.93)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —recommande→ réserver la présentation live aux situations qui méritent le coût de coordination (AFFIRMATION, 0.94)
- Martin Fowler —a_créé→ Infodeck (CONCEPT, 0.92)
- Document linéaire —surpasse→ Slideware (TECHNOLOGIE, 0.9)
- Document linéaire —réduit→ probabilité d'hallucination lors d'un résumé par LLM (AFFIRMATION, 0.85)
- Slideware —permet→ mise en page accessible aux non-designers (calques, WYSIWYG) (AFFIRMATION, 0.9)
- Infodeck —s_applique_à→ contenu à longue durée de vie méritant un soin visuel (AFFIRMATION, 0.91)
- Slidedoc —est_variante_de→ Infodeck (CONCEPT, 0.9)
- Duarte Design —publie→ Slidedocs (DOCUMENT, 0.9)
- Thoughtworks —utilise→ Infodeck (CONCEPT, 0.88)
- Applications web interactives —réduit→ Charge cognitive (CONCEPT, 0.89)
- Harness —permet→ production d'applications simples par des non-développeurs (AFFIRMATION, 0.9)
- Applications web interactives —s_oppose_à→ commentaire inline natif des wikis et documents collaboratifs (CONCEPT, 0.85)
- Vidéo enregistrée —permet→ consommation au rythme de l'audience (sous-titres, chapitrage, vitesse) (AFFIRMATION, 0.92)
- Sumeet Gayathri Moghe —mesure→ 129 builds en 8 minutes de voix off, 141 en 24 minutes à l'image (MESURE, 0.9)
- Présentation live —s_applique_à→ influence et traitement des objections en présence synchrone (AFFIRMATION, 0.93)
- Grammarly —améliore→ lisibilité et style de l'écriture (CONCEPT, 0.86)
- Ed Zitron —utilise→ monologue vidéo sans visuels (CONCEPT, 0.85)
- Martin Fowler —référence→ Never Send The Slides (DOCUMENT, 0.9)

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Canonical: https://www.thekb.eu/en/fiches/moghe-need-presentation-never-send-slides-2026-09-08/