PowerPoint Pain
The presentation where every sentence gets its own bullet until the slide looks like a grocery list.
What is Bullet Point Overload?
When “we need to fix this” becomes “we need to leverage cross-functional synergies.”
What is Management Speak?
A meeting scheduled to discuss another meeting.
What is Meeting About a Meeting?
Engineers use these to describe something that normal humans would explain in one sentence.
What are Technical Specifications?
The project starts at $1 million and somehow discovers a need for another $500,000.
What is Budget Expansion?
The font becomes so small that the presenter needs binoculars to read Slide 17
What are Tiny Fonts
Words like “synergy,” “alignment,” and “leverage” that make everyone sound busy without actually saying anything.
What are Corporate Buzzwords?
Ten people attend. Three talk. Four are muted. Two wonder why they're there.
What is Teams Online Meeting Call?
The requirement that begins as “just one small change.”
What is Requirements Creep?
“It'll take about two weeks” is followed by three months of status meetings.
What is a Project Estimate?
The presenter says,
“I'll keep this brief,” and then displays
Slide 1 of 47
The 47-Slide Presentation
A sentence so long that you forget what the original subject was before reaching the period.
What is a Mission Statement?
Everyone leaves the meeting with five of these and nobody knows who owns them.
What are Action Items?
Engineers can explain the system perfectly as long as nobody asks a question.
What is Engineering Talk / Communication?
The schedule is perfect right up until this mysterious project variable appears.
What is Reality?
A graph with 14 colors, three axes, 27 data points and absolutely no idea what you're supposed to learn from it.
What is an Unreadable Chart
A corporate graphic featuring boxes, arrows, dotted lines and at least three people who aren't sure who their boss is.
What is an Organizational Chart?
The unofficial opening phrase of online teams meeting presentations
What is “Can Everyone See My Screen?”**
Engineers explain how it works. Marketing explains why everyone needs it. Management asks why it costs so much.
What is The Engineering–Marketing Triangle?
The project is simultaneously “on schedule,” “at risk,” and “requiring additional funding.”
What is Project Status?
A presentation containing 3-D charts, spinning graphics, 14 fonts, 86 bullets and enough animation to make the audience seasick.
What is Death by PowerPoint?
The ultimate corporate phrase meaning, “Nobody knows what we're doing, but let's schedule a meeting.
What is Strategic Alignment?
The presenter repeatedly says this because they don't control the slide deck.
What is “Can We Go to the Next Slide?”
The engineer says the design is simple. The system has 47 interfaces, 12 requirements documents and 6 integration teams.
What is Engineering Simplicity?
Everyone agrees the project is over budget while simultaneously requesting more money.
What is A Budget Meeting?