The Executive Attention Model

Executives process data differently from analysts. The analyst wants the methodology, the sample size, the confidence interval, and the edge cases. The executive wants three things: what is the answer, how confident are you, and what should we do about it. Twelve minutes. That is the typical executive attention window for a data presentation. The presentation that uses eight minutes on methodology and four on recommendations fails. The presentation that uses two minutes on context, four on findings, three on implications, and three on recommended actions succeeds. The structure is answer-first, evidence-second, recommendation-third. The methodology goes in the appendix for the one executive who will ask about it.