Learn how to communicate more effectively with the 'Pyramid Principle' and how to think more clearly about any problem.

1. Communicating more
clearly with the Pyramid
Principle

2. The Pyramid Principle teaches a structured way of
presenting information that starts with the conclusion
CONCLUSION
REASON 2REASON 1
EVIDENCE 1 EVIDENCE 2 EVIDENCE 3 EVIDENCE 4

3. It is by far the most efficient way of presenting information
and should always be applied, even to the shortest email
Dear Shirley,
Last weekend when we were at the park with my
friend, he told me that when I wasn’t looking you
kissed him.
Also, remember that you came over to my house and
my mother made you a sandwich and you said: “Uch!
That’s the worst sandwich I ever had!”?
And yesterday, my cat touched your leg and then you
kicked my cat and threatened to send your dog on my
cat.
Well, for all of these reasons I hate you and I’m
breaking up with you.
Dave
Dear Shirley,
I hate you and I’m breaking-up with you. Here are my
reasons:
1. You kissed my friend behind my back
2. You insulted my mother
3. You scared my cat
I’m breaking up
with you Shirley
You insulted my
mother
You kissed my
friend
He told me
I heard you say her
sandwich was the
worst you ever had
I saw you kick my
cat and threaten to
send you dog
You scared my cat
Conclusion
Reasons
Evidence

4. Conclusion first writing was invented by (pre clickbait)
journalism
Drama at the Discoteque
Last weekend the president went out on Saturday
night. The president and his entourage went to the
discoteque for some drinks and a dance.
At the same time, an unknown person entered the
discoteque from the rear entrance. He was wearing
black clothes and was of average height.
As the president was dancing and making his move
with the ladies, the unknown person entered the
main room through the kitchen. He carefully made
his way around the room and snuck up to the
president without anybody noticing. Suddenly! He
jumped and stabbed the president in the back!
The president was taken to the hospital in critical
condition, where after a long and tense night, he
finally passed away.
President stabbed to death
Last weekend the president was stabbed to death by
an unknown person at the discoteque.
An unknown person of average height dressed
completely in black, entered the discoteque from the
rear entrance and stabbed the president in the back.
The president died at the hospital after spending the
night in critical condition.

5. Whenever you communicate something, always think
about the 3 levels of the pyramid
CONCLUSION /
ACTION TO BE
TAKEN
ARGUMENT /
REASON
ARGUMENT /
REASON
EVIDENCE / DATA
BACKING IT UP
EVIDENCE / DATA
BACKING IT UP
EVIDENCE / DATA
BACKING IT UP
EVIDENCE / DATA
BACKING IT UP

6. A real life example 1/2
Hi Gijs,
As we discussed in the skype call we are looking into a new office as we are planning
on recruiting some more on sales and we are running out of space. Last Friday we
heard that our neighbours are moving out and we really loved their place - there is so
much potential in this office for Everjobs (pics attached). Imagine the everjobs blue and
logo at the entrance hall! There is even room to place an entire IT team here ;)
As of now we are paying around 100/110.000 LKR for the office including
maintenance/office supplies. Carmudi is paying in full and sends us an consolidated
invoice for everything every month. We recently heard that Kaymu is unknowingly
paying part of the electricity bill for our office and this will be charged to us as well
from now on - so it will be a bit more expensive ranging between 115/125.000 per
month.
In terms of size: Office space right now: 625 sq ft. Other office space: 1550 sq ft.
The price of the other office is 165.000 LKR excluding electricity/water usage and we
expect this (ballpark figure) to be around 20-25k depending on the usage of course.
Felix and I have been looking at other offices over the past three weeks to get an idea of
the prices, but its very well priced for the space/location in Colombo as we did not find
anything below 150K even for less space.
Upsides of new office:
● Very low to no moving costs as it is across the hall.
● We are not relying on Carmudi/Lamudi/Kaymu anymore (we are not paying
for their coffee usage).
● Boost our culture with a very nice office!
● We can finally welcome some clients in the office
We are looking forward hearing your opinion on this matter.

7. A real life example 2/2
Hi Gijs,
As we discussed in the skype call we are looking into a new office as we are
planning on recruiting some more on sales and we are running out of space. Last
Friday we heard that our neighbours are moving out and we really loved their place -
there is so much potential in this office for us (pics attached). Imagine our company
color and logo at the entrance hall! There is even room to place an entire IT team
here ;)
As of now we are paying around 100/110.000 LKR for the office including
maintenance/office supplies. The other venture is paying in full and sends us an
consolidated invoice for everything every month. We recently heard that Another
venture is unknowingly paying part of the electricity bill for our office and this will
be charged to us as well from now on - so it will be a bit more expensive ranging
between 115/125.000 per month.
In terms of size: Office space right now: 625 sq ft. Other office space: 1550 sq ft.
The price of the other office is 165.000 LKR excluding electricity/water usage and
we expect this (ballpark figure) to be around 20-25k depending on the usage of
course. Felix and I have been looking at other offices over the past three weeks to
get an idea of the prices, but its very well priced for the space/location in
Colombo as we did not find anything below 150K even for less space.
Upsides of new office:
● Very low to no moving costs as it is across the hall.
● We are not sharing costs with other ventures anymore anymore (we are
not paying for their coffee usage).
● Boost our culture with a very nice office!
● We can finally welcome some clients in the office
We are looking forward hearing your opinion on this matter.
Hi Gijs,
We want to move to the office across the hall
1. We need a new office as we are running out of space.
a. We plan to hire more salespeople and our current office will not fit any
more employees
2. Though more expensive, It is the best option in terms of costs
a. The new office will be c. 190,000 per month (all-in) vs. c. 125,000 for our
current office
b. Compared to the [x] offices we looked at satisfying our location and size
requirements, this one has the lowest rent price (see overview below)
c. Moving costs will be minimal as it is across the hall
3. We will no longer depend on the other ventures for running costs
a. Currently we are sharing maintenance and office supplies (e.g. also
coffee) with 2 other ventures.
b. With this move we can take ownership of our own electricity and supply
usage and potentially bring it down
4. The nice office will boost our culture and allow us to welcome clients
a. The office has a lot of potential to look more professional and there is
more meeting space where we can welcome clients
b. Having our own, nice office will boost the culture of our team, giving
everjobs a stronger identity and increasing motivation
Note that as an additional benefit, the new office is large enough to fit the IT team if
that scenario plays out.

8. ➔ Practice by applying the Pyramid Principle to everything you
write, even on Slack
➔ It will help you write better proposals, create better presentations,
and communicate more clearly for the rest of your life
➔ Help each other get better; don’t be afraid to ask and give
feedback about writing
How to apply the Pyramid Principle in your
work

9. Simple rules of thumb and questions to ask
yourself:
● Be PRECISE
○ Is your communication correct and logical? Is it clear
what you mean?
● Be COMPLETE
○ Did you include all the information the reader needs
to understand and take action?
● What is the SO WHAT?
○ What do you want? What outcome are you after?
● PYRAMID

10. And to end this section,
here are some great
writing tips from Amazon
to help you communicate
more precisely and to the
point

11. Some good tools for
better thinking and
problem solving

12. Unclear: So what is included or excluded in this
one then???
ON COMPARISONS
Don’t compare things that are not comparable! As the saying goes, you should
only compare apples to apples, and oranges to oranges1
As of now we are paying around 100/110.000 LKR for the office
including maintenance/office supplies. Carmudi is paying in full
and sends us an consolidated invoice for everything every month.
We recently heard that another venture is unknowingly paying
part of the electricity bill for our office and this will be charged to
us as well from now on - so it will be a bit more expensive ranging
between 115/125.000 per month.
The price of the other office is 165.000 LKR excluding
electricity/water usage and we expect this (ballpark figure) to be
around 20-25k depending on the usage of course.
Felix and I have been looking at other offices over the past three
weeks to get an idea of the prices, but its very well priced for the
space/location in Colombo as we did not find anything below
150K even for less space.
Price metric 1: Including maintenance and office
supplies
Not clear: Let’s assume also incl. Maintenance
and office supplies
Price metric 2: Excl. electricity / water usage
(what about office supplies and maintenance?
1. I have disliked this saying my entire professional life, because apples and oranges are actually quite comparable. See http://www.diffen.com/difference/Apples_vs_Oranges for a very
detailed comparison

13. DIFFERENT LEVELS OF THINKING
Let’s go back to the Pyramid and turn it into an issue tree with different levels
to unpack problems
I’m breaking up
with you Shirley
You insulted my
mother
You kissed my
friend
He told me
I heard you say her
sandwich was the
worst you ever had
I saw you kick my
cat and threaten to
send you dog
You scared my cat
Conclusion
Reasons
Evidence
Big picture
Sub-points
Sub-sub-
points
I want Yeezys
Where to
buy
Need money
Sell some
shoes
Check on
Ox Street
Find a way to
try them on
Don’t know
my size
A.
1. 1.1.
2. 2. 2.
Level A.
Level 1.
Level 2.

14. CONSCIOUSLY NAVIGATE THE LEVELS FOR CLARITY
The most common way for conversations to become ineffective is by losing
track of the different levels of argumentation
Big picture
Sub-points
Sub-sub-
points
A.
1.
2.
Source: Ray Dalio - Principles -- A great read if you are enjoying these slides about thinking
Sub-sub-
sub points
3.
The weeds
4.
A B C D E F
1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4
A B C D E F
1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4
Logical outcome
Logical outcome
A big picture
argument
that works
A logical
argument
that goes
into specifics
A B C D E F
1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4
A B C D E F
1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4
No useful outcome
A random
story that
gets derailed
A story that
plunges into
the weeds
👍 👎
No useful outcome

15. CLARITY
When you end up in a discussion with poor clarity, stop and redefine the goal
What is the problem we are trying to solve?
Agree first on THAT, and then continue the discussion
Everyone who participates in the discussion shares the
responsibility to maintain clarity
Take Ownership

16. The concept of MECE (“Me See”) for sub-points
Mutually Exclusive, Collective Exhaustive
Bread
What did you have
for breakfast?
Eggs
Vegetarian
What did you have
for breakfast?
Non-vegetarian
● Mutually Exclusive
○ There is no overlap between the different blocks in the tree
○ They cannot both be true at the same time
❌ ✅

17. Mutually Exclusive, Collective Exhaustive
Heads
Coin flip outcome?
Tails
● Collectively exhaustive
○ The information in the blocks together covers every possible option
Vegetarian
What did you have
for breakfast?
Non-Vegetarian
❌ ✅
Just tea
Vegan
The concept of MECE

18. ➔ Use the Pyramid Concept to draw problems out as a branching
tree with different levels or depths
➔ Pay attention to the level where a conversation is, and try to stop
it from becoming unstructured or plunging into the weeds
➔ Try to unpack a problem into sub-issues that are MECE
➔ It is not silly to draw a pyramid or tree by yourself to make a
problem easier to understand
Logical reasoning summary