For startups and scaleups, change is inevitable — change means growth.
Every day, we work with leaders as they guide their teams through pivotal moments of change and growth. Whether your company is documenting the vision for your first product, defining and launching your MVP, establishing your position in market, scaling your team, launching a new brand, or acquiring a new product — as a leader, you’re constantly navigating change to fuel your growth.
A socialization deck is the best way to communicate change to your team, transforming them from uninformed to excited.
What is a socialization deck?
A socialization deck is a set of slides written to help you socialize an idea (big or small) to a specific audience. Most often, socialization decks are used to communicate a significant business change or cast a vision for a future product. But there are many use cases that warrant a socialization framework.
Your socialization deck will tell a story that inspires, making it an efficient and effective way to get your team excited about what’s next.
How do I know I need a socialization deck?
A socialization deck is a helpful tool when you’re:
- Transitioning from the idea stage into action
- Getting buy-in from cross-functional teams
- Announcing big changes or shifts in company strategy
A socialization deck is different from a sales deck or pitch deck. While a sales deck sells and a pitch deck proves, a socialization deck inspires.
Often, socialization decks are shared in the inspiration stage before every detail is confirmed. At the inspiration stage, don’t dig into the details of what and how. Instead, keep the message high-level, focused on the why and potential impact. Your socialization deck should cast a vision for the future and align your team about what’s next.
Key Components of a Socialization Deck
Every socialization deck is unique, depending on your audience, your message and what stage of building you’re in.
Here are five key components to include in any socialization deck:
1. Introduction: Where We Are Today
Begin your socialization deck by anchoring your audience in something familiar. If you’re sharing a new strategy, start with your existing strategy. Give context about the situation, the results and the impact.
2. Backstory: The Opportunity
Next, explain how you uncovered the opportunity for your business or product and how it will contribute to your organization. Think about the moment you realized something needed to change. What did you do next?
3. The Moment: Our Vision
After building anticipation, share the idea you’ve worked so hard on. Present your idea in a way that will excite and energize your team. Depending on the size and the finality of your idea, this section could look very different.
A few ideas to consider:
- For a big company rebrand: consider a launch video, like Doodle.
- For bringing together two companies into one: lean on new positioning, like Base.
- For sharing a new product vision: show more than you tell with product mock-ups, like Parspec.
4. The Moment Explained: Impact to the Organization
After the big moment, it’s helpful to fill in a few important gaps for your audience, such as: how this new change will help you better serve your customers, make work easier on your team and help you reach specific goals.
5. Wrap-up: What’s Next
As you wrap up your socialization deck, remember that everyone processes new information differently. Give your audience a clear roadmap to help them feel more comfortable with the transition.
- Current status: Help your audience understand the state of your plan: is it in the ideation, strategy, or execution phase?
- General timeline: Give a general roadmap for what’s next. Be as specific as you can, but remember it’s okay not to have every single detail defined — that’s what you’ll do in the following meetings.
- Contact for questions: Consider how you’ll address questions. Some companies prefer to designate a specific person as the primary contact while others create an anonymous form.
You put a ton of work into researching, planning and executing your idea. Equally important, though, is how you socialize and share that idea with the rest of your team. If you don’t earn buy-in, you’re dead in the water. A socialization deck is a powerful tool that can help you see your idea over the finish line.
Ready to inspire and excite? Find out how our product marketing experts can help.
