Practical Storytelling Essentials

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Practical Storytelling Essentials Diego Quiroga linkedin.com/in/diego Feb 20th, 2025 Once upon a time... Every day... But one day... Because of that... Because of that... Until ﬁnally... And ever since then... The Pixar Pitch

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Story-Telling? Storytelling? StoryTelling? Telling Stories?

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What Storytelling Is ..and Why It Matters

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5-Minute Demos are Stories We Tell

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Sometimes demos fall ﬂat..

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Common Pitfalls in Short Demos ❓No Clear “Why” 📚Overloading with Details 🤔Unclear Problem Statement 🔀Lack of Cohesive Story Flow 🙈Overlooking Constraints & Trade-Offs

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We Can Do Better with Structures

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Ready-To Use Structures (for 5-minute demos) • SCQA Situation-Complication-Question-Answer • What / So What / Now What • Problem-Solution-Beneﬁt • Contrast (Before vs After) • Hero’s Mini Journey

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Exercise Time

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• Stories Are Powerful • Avoid Pitfalls • Use Structures • Time Is Short -> Focus • Keep It Simple, Less is More Key Takeaways

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The End

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Bonus Microtips ▪ Don't be like everybody else; jump in. ▪ Cut out extra details for clarity. ▪ Avoid exhaustive technical deep dives. ▪ Never read your slides. ▪ Keep your narrative cohesive. ▪ Frontload and recap your main points.

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A Few Resources ▪ Your Brain on Story (YouTube video) ▪ Presentation Skills with Story Telling (O’Reilly) ▪ The Art of Storytelling (Coursera , Free) ▪ Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less (Book) ▪ Recommendations for Engage Demos (wiki) ▪ Viva Learning (search for ‘Storytelling’)