31. Vinod Khosla’s Five-Second Rule

A Sanity Check for Every Presentation

Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla, whose communication philosophy, “Message sent is not the same as message received,” you read about in Chapter 19, “Vinod Khosla’s Cardinal Rule,” is a keen observer of all aspects of communication, including presentation graphics. During his 25 years in venture capital, Mr. Khosla has seen as many presentations as—if not more than—a presentation coach. Most of them were on Mondays, the day that Silicon Valley venture firms traditionally allocate to screening pitches from new companies. One by one, the start-ups stand up to be judged and then funded—or not. Once a candidate company makes it into the Khosla Ventures portfolio, Mr. Khosla continues to monitor and critique the presentations they develop to pitch to their potential customers and partners.

For all of them, he applies another cardinal standard: The five-second rule: Mr. Khosla puts a slide on a screen, removes it after five seconds, and then asks the viewer to describe the slide. A dense slide fails the test—and fails to provide the basic function of any visual: to aid the presentation. A simple slide makes its point instantly—fulfilling the name of the 150-year old company that produces calendars, planners, and organizers: AT-A-GLANCE.¹

By applying his simple rule, Mr. Khosla addresses two of the most important elements in presentation graphics: Less is More, a plea all too often sounded by helpless audiences to hapless presenters; and more important, the human perception factor. Whenever an image appears on any screen, the eyes of every member of every audience move to the screen to process the new information, and they do so reflexively. The denser the image, the more time the audience needs to process. At that moment, they stop listening to the presenter. Nevertheless, most presenters continue speaking, further compounding the processing effort for the audience. As a result, they shut down.

Game over.

The simple solution to this pervasive problem is to follow the example of television news programs. Despite a vast array of sophisticated graphics capabilities at any broadcaster’s disposal, all they ever show is an image composed of a picture and a few words. This image serves as a headline for the story that the anchorperson tells.

For presentations, consider yourself the anchorperson and design your slides to serve as the headline for your story. When your audience sees that simple an image, they understand it at a glance—Mr. Khosla’s five-second rule—and they keep listening to you.

Game on!