Elon Musk’s Tesla Powerwall Keynote Dissected:

Why You Should Watch it Before Your Next

Technical Presentation

Keynote presentations are great opportunities for technology companies

to announce new products and to get a lot of attention.

Nevertheless, crafting a technical keynote is not an easy task. It easy to

get lured by the “feature creep” and start telling about all of the things
you know and care about the product. The great challenge is to present
technical facts and data in a well-organized and easy to digest fashion
that ultimately inspires the audience.

Elon Musk’s Tesla&Powerwall&Keynote is an outstanding example of a technical

keynote. This article presents a dissection of this talk, showing the key
elements that made it successful, and why you should watch it before
your next technical presentation.

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Structure of Tesla Powerwall Keynote
Research&shows&that people retain structured information up to 40% more
reliably and accurately than information that is presented in a more
freeform manner.

This 18-minute keynote has a clear and effective structure, which is not
always a common practice in technical presentations. The sections are:

Problem -> Solution -> Product -> Benefits -> Call to action ->
Subproblem and its solution -> Demo -> Is this really possible? ->
Wrap up

Let´s then look at the strengths of this keynote in closer detail under each
segment in the structure.

The Problem
Elon Musk starts his keynote showing the problem of energy today:
dependence on fossil energy resources and its negative consequences. A
set of images--accompanied with the phrase “THIS IS REAL”--speak
itself. He replies to someone in the audience with “It sucks, exactly.” Then
Musk shows a graph with the growth of CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere. “I think we collectively should do something about this.”

This section informs about a relevant problem and tells how both Tesla
and we share the same values and concerns.

As Simon Sinek would say: start with why.

The Solution
Once Musk presented the problem, he transitions to the solution. The
solution was clearly explained as having two parts and there being a clear
gap in what the current solutions are offering.

Part 1: The Sun. “We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the
sun. You don’t have to do anything, it just works, shows up every day and
produces ridiculous amounts of power.”

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Part 2: Batteries. Then he shows the main challenges of this alternative:
today’s batteries are inconvenient for a long list of reasons (they are
expensive, unreliable, low efficiency, unattractive, etc).

Show clearly what are the shortcomings of current solutions. People are
intrigued by contrast and this way you will create clear contrast between
what is and what could be.

The Product
The solution to the problem of today’s batteries (called “the missing
piece”) was the new Tesla Energy product. Musk presents Tesla
Powerwall by showing a well-designed video. The video first shows how a
Powerwall mounted outside a house can power a car, and then shows how
it can also power a house and be connected to a renewable energy
grid. “It looks like a beautiful sculpture on the wall.”

There may be many advantages in your product, but it´s better you focus
on one or few that are the most essential ones.

Benefits
After the audience showed its excitement and interest about the new
product, Musk starts presenting clear benefits of the product. The main
three points were:

The benefits of being wall-mounted, instead of relying on a “battery room”

which is the common standard today. Several Powerwalls can be stacked
up to nine.

The cost is just 3,500 USD for a 10kWh battery

Thanks to Powerwall batteries, there will not be need of deploying

electrical grid infrastructure in remote locations.

Remember that it is benefits that people are buying. You may be

enthusiastic about the features of your product, some people may see that
there are clear advantages compared to other products, but most people
only understand the benefits of your product in their daily life.

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Call to action
After having showed the benefits, Musk gave a clear call to action: “You
can order the Tesla Powerwall right now, on the Tesla website”. He
announced that Tesla would start shipping in approximately 3-4 months
(as of today, this has been delayed).

The objective of any presentation is to create a change of some kind in its

audience. It is the responsibility of the presenter to give a clear call to
action to his audience. So have a clear vision of what do you want to
achieve with your technical keynote.

A subproblem and its solution

In this section Musk brought scalability to the table as a potential
limitation of his offer. “What about something that scales to much larger
levels?”

The solution he presented was called Powerpack, designed to scale

infinitely, let’s say a Gigawatt-hour class solution. However, seeing a
Powerpack on the stage was less impressive and it sounded more
technical than the Powerwall. Instead of just telling more numbers and
facts, he quickly moved to showing a well-prepared demo.

Demo
After Musk unveiled the Powerpack and explained its scenarios, he
brought the idea of switching the energy used in the building to battery-
powered energy.

The camera immediately went to a room that showed the energy source of
the building at that moment. “Let’s go and check out the power meter”.
The camera zoom showed two power meters labeled “Grid” and “Battery”.
A closer zoom showed that the Grid meter was actually zero. “This entire
night has been powered by batteries”. This was the WOW moment of the
demo, which caused applause and hurrahs. “Not only that, but the
batteries were charged by the solar panels on the roof of this building.”

Demo is great, but it should add more value to the presentation than just
an example of what it is that you are selling. Think how you can achieve a
WOW moment with your demo.
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Is this really possible?
Right after the demo Musk transitions to a new reflection: what is really
needed to transition the world to sustainable energy? Is this really
possible?

If you wanted to transition all transport and all electricity generation and
all heating in the world to renewable you need approximately 2 billion
Powerpacks. The number of cars and trucks that we have on the road is
approximately 2 billion.

Wrap Up
As this keynote was not only showing us a new product but a change of
how the world should produce and consume energy, he ended reiterating
the shared mission, and that Tesla is committed to make it happen.

“The path that I’ve told you about, the solar panel and the batteries, is
the only path that I know that can do this, and I think it’s something we
must do, and we can do and that we will do.”

What was the best of the keynote from a technical presentation point
of view?
This keynote had many elements that when put together made it easy to
follow, even for a non-technical audience. The most important elements
were:

•! Great analogies. “Cellphones leapfrogged the landlines and there

wasn’t a need to put landlines in a lot of countries or in remote
locations” That’s how Musk showed that there will not be need of
deploying electrical grid infrastructure in many places in the
world. !
•! Translate data into visuals. Musk showed that a tiny blue
square within the map of USA is the area needed to power the
entire country with solar electricity. !
•! The demo. A surprise moment that showed that the product
already solves a real problem.!
•! The preparation. Did you notice that Musk didn’t have a clicker
in his hands? This proves that the keynote has been rehearsed a

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 lot, as the synchronization between Musk and what was showed in
the screens was flawless and smooth.!

I hope this brought you inspiration and great ideas for the next time you
present your product. No matter how long your talk will be or how
technical your product is, you can apply the same principles Elon Musk
did during Tesla Powerwall Keynote. Start with the problem, follow a
logical structure, and add as many elements as you can: analogies,
stories, a demo, visuals, etc.

Author: Oscar Santolalla

Oscar has experience as a Product Manager in the software industry, and

two years of experience as Lecturer of Computer Science courses.

In his work as a Technical Product Manager Oscar became frustrated in

how difficult it was to get people to understand technical topics. So he
aspired to become a more effective presenter and was inspired by great
technical presenters such as Mikko Hyppönen and Steve Jobs.

Today he is the former President of Stadi Talkers Toastmasters public

speaking club and has won accolades in Toastmasters public speaking
contests. Either onstage or on blogs he advocates making technical
presentations and product demos that engage and inspire.

Oscar is also Host and Producer of the public speaking podcast Time to
Shine.

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 A Public Speaker’s Checklist (Logistics)
Created by Manner of Speaking

Copyright: John Zimmer http://mannerofspeaking.org/

Designed by Havain www.havain.fi

TRAVEL MARKETING PRESENTATION

◻ Date and time of presentation ◻ Business cards Written introduction for person
◻ presenting you
◻ Directions to venue / map ◻ Brochures
◻ Speaking notes
◻ Airplane tickets ◻ Samples USB(s) with back-up of
◻ presentation
◻ Passport ◻ Promotional material
◻ Back-up of presentation on email
◻ Full tank of gas, if driving ◻ For Keynote users, a PowerPoint
◻ Location of parking lot ◻ version of presentation in case of
problems with Mac
◻ Bus pass / metro pass / cab fare
CONSUMABLES ◻ Hard copy of presentation slides
◻ Money / credit card
Alternative way of presenting
◻ Bus / metro schedule ◻ Bottle of water ◻ without slides
Bananas or preferred energy
◻ Location of bus / metro stop ◻ ◻ Props
food
◻ Sufficient time to get to venue ◻ Breath mints ◻ Markers for flip chart

◻ ◻ Throat lozenges ◻ Markers for white board

◻ Aspirin / medication ◻ Handouts

◻ ◻ Reference material
COMMUNICATION ◻ Evaluation forms for audience
◻ Cell phone / charger ◻ Video camera / stand
Phone numbers of contacts at PERSONAL ◻
◻ speaking venue
◻ ◻ Watch

◻ Glasses / cleaner

◻ Contact lenses / case

VENUE ON THE DAY
◻ Eye drops

◻ If possible, visit venue or: ◻ Toothbrush / toothpaste ◻ Arrive early

◻ Review floor plan ◻ Lip balm ◻ Meet host(s)

◻ Review photos of room ◻ Deodorant ◻ Meet technician(s)

◻ Confirm equipment at venue ◻ Perfume / cologne ◻ Test presentation equipment

◻ Confirm Internet at venue ◻ Hair brush / comb ◻ Run sound check

Prepare speaking area (lectern,
◻ ◻ Spare shirt / tie ◻ walking space, flipcharts, etc.)
◻ Spare blouse / nylons ◻ Ensure proper seating

◻ Spare shoes ◻ Adjust lights / curtains

EQUIPMENT
◻ Tissues ◻ Adjust temperature
◻ Laptop / charger
◻ Umbrella ◻ Locate rest rooms
◻ iPad / Android / charger
◻ ◻ Have drinking water available
◻ Back-up laptop
◻
◻ Electrical adapter
◻ Small speakers for sound STATIONERY
Adapter to connect computer to
◻ beamer, especially for Macs ◻ Pens / Pencils

◻ Highlighters OTHER
◻ Remote control for presentation
◻ Batteries for remote control ◻ Notepad ◻
◻ Extension cord ◻ Post-It Notes ◻
◻ Timer ◻ Empty USB key ◻
◻ ◻ ◻

Presentation: Venue:

Audience: Date: