pitch-vs-teach

Pitch Vs Teach Skill

Two fundamentally different talks share the same slideware: the pitch exists to drive one decision (structure: tension → answer → evidence → ask; success: the yes) and the teach exists to build durable understanding (structure: foundation → layers → examples → practice; success: they can use it Tuesday). Most presentation failures are mode confusion — the pitch built like a lecture (comprehensive, balanced, ask-less: the room learned a lot and decided nothing) or the training built like a pitch (persuasive, thin, one-sided: the room was convinced but can't operate it). The diagnosis takes one question; the structures then diverge completely.

What This Skill Produces

• The mode diagnosis — pitch, teach, or genuinely-both (which means two segments, not a blend), from the success-question
• The structural implications — what the diagnosed mode demands: sequence, density, evidence style, the ending
• The mode-check — an existing deck audited for mode confusion, with the tells cited
• The split design — for mixed mandates: the teach-then-pitch sequence with the seam handled

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The success question — "if this goes perfectly, what happens afterward?" A decision made → pitch. People operating differently → teach. Both answers → the split, and the order matters
• The audience's starting state — a pitch to people who don't understand the domain needs a teaching segment (not a teaching structure); a training to skeptics needs a pitch opening (why learn this)
• The existing deck, if any — mode-checks work on real slides, and the tells are findable
• The time slot — teaches need more time than pitches; a 15-minute slot can pitch or orient, never train

Framework: The Mode Rules

1. The success question diagnoses: what happens after, if it works? — one question, asked before any slide exists. "They approve the budget" and "they can run the process" produce different talks from the same material, and the diagnosis is the fork everything else follows ([deck-outline-first](../deck-outline-first/SKILL.md) headers should carry the mode).
2. Pitch structure is asymmetric on purpose: tension early ([deck-narrative-arc](../deck-narrative-arc/SKILL.md)), the answer fast ([exec-vs-working-deck](../exec-vs-working-deck/SKILL.md)), evidence chosen not comprehensive, risks conceded strategically ([proposal-skeleton](../proposal-skeleton/SKILL.md)), and the ask closes. Balance is the pitch's enemy dressed as virtue — a pitch that "presents all sides equally" has delegated its job to the room.
3. Teach structure is layered and redundant on purpose: foundation before detail, each layer resting on the last, worked examples (the [handbook-page](../handbook-page/SKILL.md) example logic — examples teach what assertions can't), deliberate repetition (the pitch's sin is the teach's method), and it ends in practice or application, not an ask. Persuasion energy in a teach reads as agenda and undermines the trust teaching needs.
4. The tells of mode confusion: an "informative" deck whose author is frustrated nobody decided → a pitch in denial (the ask was never written). A pitch running 40 comprehensive slides → a teach costume (the decision drowned in curriculum). Q&A asking "so what do you want from us?" → mode failure, diagnosed live by the room.
5. Mixed mandates split, in order: teach-then-pitch when the decision needs understanding ("here's how the system works — 15 min — now here's the change we propose — 10 min"), with the seam announced ("that's the background; now the recommendation") — because audiences process the two modes with different postures, and the announcement lets them switch. Blended modes make the teaching feel slanted and the pitch feel padded.

Output Format

Mode Diagnosis: [talk] — verdict: [pitch / teach / split]

The Success Question

[The after-state, in their words → the diagnosis]

Structural Implications

[The diagnosed mode's sequence, density, evidence style, and ending — as build instructions]

Mode-Check (existing deck)

[The tells found: slides cited · the confusion's cost · the restructure direction]

The Split (if both)

[Teach segment (scope, minutes) → the announced seam → pitch segment (tension, ask) · which comes first and why]

Quality Checks

• [ ] The success question was answered before structure was touched
• [ ] Pitch verdicts produce an ask; teach verdicts produce practice/application
• [ ] Mode-confusion tells are cited from actual slides
• [ ] Splits are sequenced segments with an announced seam, never a blend
• [ ] The time slot supports the diagnosed mode's real needs

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not build "informative" pitches — a pitch without an ask is a lecture with an agenda
• [ ] Do not persuade in a training — advocacy energy poisons the trust that teaching runs on
• [ ] Do not balance a pitch into neutrality — the risks slide is where balance lives; the thesis is not
• [ ] Do not blend mixed mandates — split, sequence, announce the seam
• [ ] Do not let the room diagnose the mode in Q&A — "what do you want from us?" is the autopsy question