From Endless Decks to Decision POCs

There's a pattern I've noticed in how organizations evaluate new technology. It usually looks like this:

Someone proposes a new tool or approach. A deck gets created. The deck gets presented. Questions get asked. The deck gets revised. It gets presented again. Months pass. A decision still hasn't been made.

The problem isn't the deck. The problem is that decks are designed to persuade, not to inform. They're optimized for narrative flow, not for revealing what actually works.

What if we flipped the approach entirely?

The Deck Problem

Presentations are seductive. They let you control the story. You can emphasize strengths, downplay weaknesses, and move past uncomfortable questions with a well-timed transition. By the time you're done, everyone feels like they understand the technology.

But understanding a technology in a presentation is not the same as understanding it in practice.

A deck can't tell you:

• How it actually integrates with your existing systems
• What the real performance characteristics are under your specific load
• How your team will actually use it day-to-day
• What the failure modes look like
• Whether it solves your actual problem or just sounds like it does

Decks are great for alignment. They're terrible for decision-making.

The POC Advantage

A proof-of-concept is the opposite. It's messy, specific, and brutally honest. It forces you to confront reality.

When you build a POC, you're not selling an idea. You're testing a hypothesis. And the results are unambiguous. Either it works in your environment or it doesn't. Either your team can use it or they can't. Either it solves your problem or it reveals that your problem is different than you thought.

A good POC answers the questions that matter:

• Can we integrate this with our stack?
• What does the learning curve actually look like?
• Does it perform at the scale we need?
• What are the real operational costs?
• Does it actually solve the problem we're trying to solve?

The Decision Framework

Here's what I've learned about moving from decks to POCs:

Start with a clear decision criterion. Before you build anything, define what success looks like. Not "we'll see if it's good" — but specific, measurable outcomes. "We need to reduce query time by 40%" or "We need to onboard new team members in under a week."

Make the POC small and time-boxed. The goal isn't to build the production system. It's to answer the critical questions. A two-week POC that answers the right questions is worth more than a three-month pilot that answers everything.

Involve the people who'll actually use it. Decks are presented to decision-makers. POCs should be built with the people who'll live with the consequences. They'll spot problems that executives never would.

Document the friction, not just the wins. The real value of a POC is understanding what doesn't work. Where did you get stuck? What took longer than expected? What surprised you? That's the data that matters.

Make the decision quickly. Once the POC is done, decide. Don't let it become another presentation. Either you have enough information to move forward, or you don't. If you don't, you need a different POC, not more analysis.

When Decks Still Matter

This isn't an argument against presentations. Decks are still useful for:

• Communicating the results of a POC
• Aligning stakeholders on the decision
• Documenting the rationale for future reference

But they should come after the POC, not before it. They should explain what you learned, not what you hope to learn.

The Real Cost of Endless Decks

Every month spent in deck-driven evaluation is a month your competitors are shipping. It's a month your team is stuck with a suboptimal solution. It's a month of organizational energy spent on alignment instead of execution.

POCs aren't risk-free. You might build something and discover it doesn't work. But that's a faster, cheaper failure than spending six months in presentations only to discover the same thing.

Moving Forward

If you're stuck in the deck cycle, propose a POC instead. Set a timeline. Define success. Build something real. Make a decision.

The best technology decisions aren't made in conference rooms. They're made by teams who've actually tried something, learned what works, and decided based on evidence.

Decks can wait. Reality can't.