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Engineering communication guidance questions necessity of slide decks for information sharing
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A Thoughtworks leader argues most technical information is better conveyed as linear documents than as slide presentations.
Engineers spend significant time preparing slide decks for internal reviews, client pitches, and team updates. If documents can replace slides for most information sharing, that time can be reallocated to design, testing, or documentation. The trade-off is that live interaction and emotional resonance are lost when presentations are dropped.
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Documents with linear structure reduce fragmentation and improve comprehension compared to slide decks.
Collaborative writing tools enforce style and readability, producing standalone artefacts with less context loss.
Slideware remains useful for visual storytelling and live interaction but is overused for simple information transfer.
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The article challenges the default use of slide decks for technical communication. It argues that most corporate information sharing, requirements, status updates, design decisions, does not require the emotional orchestration of a live presentation. A document with headings, short paragraphs, and diagrams can convey the same information more clearly and with less cognitive load. This shift is particularly relevant for engineers who often prepare slides for internal reviews or client updates where the primary goal is information transfer, not persuasion or motivation.
Documents offer practical advantages over slides for engineering teams. Writing tools enforce consistency in style and readability, reducing ambiguity. Collaborative editing features allow multiple reviewers to suggest changes, improving the final artefact. Documents also scale better for detailed technical content; complex logic or data can be explained in full without the constraint of fitting onto a slide. For async communication, documents reduce the risk of context loss between slides, and their linear structure makes them more compatible with summarisation tools like LLMs.
Slide decks are not obsolete, but their use should be reserved for specific scenarios. Live presentations excel when interaction, timing, and emotional engagement are critical, such as pitching a new architecture to stakeholders or rallying a team around a technical vision. Slideware also remains useful for visual storytelling, where layer-based editing and layout flexibility help convey complex ideas. However, for routine information sharing, the overhead of slide creation, fragmented content, design effort, and context gaps, outweighs the benefits. Engineers should default to documents and use slides only when the narrative or interaction justifies the cost.
The article’s framing reflects a broader trend in engineering communication: the shift from synchronous, presentation-heavy formats to asynchronous, document-driven workflows. This aligns with the rise of remote work and distributed teams, where live meetings are harder to schedule and async artefacts are more scalable. However, the trade-off is that documents lack the immediacy and emotional impact of a live presentation. For engineers, this means rethinking how they prepare for reviews or updates, prioritising clarity and completeness in writing over the visual polish of slides. The guidance does not eliminate presentations but forces a deliberate choice about when they are truly necessary.
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