Jack Dorsey, the CEO of financial technology company Block, has revealed a significant change in how his company conducts internal meetings. Speaking on an episode of Sequoia Capital's "Long Strange Trip" podcast released on Thursday, Dorsey stated that employees no longer prepare traditional slide deck presentations for meetings.
Instead, staff are now expected to bring functional prototypes of their ideas. "Now everyone is bringing a prototype that they built, which is pretty amazing," Dorsey said. He explained that this shift occurred over the past two months, moving away from a culture where every meeting involved presentations via slides or Google Docs.
A Shift Towards Realism and Agility
Dorsey, who co-founded the company (formerly Square) in 2009, argued that prototypes built on simulated or real data offer more "depth and realism" than a slide deck ever could. He emphasised the advantage of being able to modify these prototypes in real-time during discussions.
A key benefit, according to Dorsey, is the reduced cost of failure in the decision-making process. "The cost of being wrong on that path and going back up the tree and going down another path is getting closer and closer to zero," he told the podcast.
Part of a Broader Tech Trend
Dorsey's move aligns with a growing sentiment among technology leaders who are critical of traditional presentation methods. In October 2023, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of AI search company Perplexity, stated he hadn't used a pitch deck since the company's Series A funding round, preferring to write detailed memos for investors.
The pushback has historical precedent. In a famous 2004 memo, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos banned "PowerPoint-style presentations" in favour of "narrative-structured" six-page memos. Similarly, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known to despise slide decks. "I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs once said, according to a book by David Pogue. "People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint."
Context of Recent Company Restructuring
This cultural shift at Block follows a period of significant workforce reduction. In February 2024, the company laid off approximately 4,000 employees, constituting about 40% of its global workforce. At the time, Dorsey cited a drive for greater efficiency, partly enabled by advancements in artificial intelligence, as a rationale for the cuts.
The new meeting protocol appears to be part of a broader strategy to streamline operations and foster a more action-oriented, product-focused culture within the fintech firm, which operates services including Square, Cash App, and Tidal.