April 4, 2026
Death of the deck, rise of the demo
Jack Dorsey says Block employees now bring prototypes, not slides, to meetings
Slides are banned; live demos only as fans cheer and skeptics call it a PR stunt
TLDR: Block’s Jack Dorsey says no more slide decks—employees must bring live prototypes. Commenters are split: some cheer faster, hands‑on pitching, while others call it PR after AI‑justified layoffs and question results, asking why Square still trails Toast; the deck ban became a fight over outcomes and optics.
Jack Dorsey says Block has put PowerPoint on ice and now demands prototypes in meetings. Instead of slides, employees show live mock‑ups with real or fake data that can change on the spot. Dorsey calls it deeper, faster, and cheap to undo if wrong. That’s the headline — but the comments? Pure chaos.
One camp is clapping. A product manager says bringing prototypes to users early “builds better features faster,” basically show, don’t tell for the office. Another crowd isn’t buying it. After thousands of layoffs blamed on AI, a top‑liked skeptic sneers that demos are only for meetings with Jack, calling execs “clowns in a dreamworld.” The performance police show up too: if AI made Block so efficient, why is Square still getting dunked on by Toast? Ouch.
The nostalgia squad drops the classics: Bezos banned PowerPoint in 2004, Jobs roasted slide decks, so this is hardly new. But the meme of the day is “vibecoded prototypes” — is that more thinking or less? The vibe is part TED Talk, part office Hunger Games. In short, Dorsey’s no‑slides rule sparked a bigger fight about what actually matters: shiny demos, or results and jobs. The community’s verdict is split between “Finally!” and “Nice theater — now ship
Key Points
- •Jack Dorsey said Block employees now bring working prototypes, not slide decks or Google Docs, to meetings.
- •Prototypes at Block use simulated or real data, offer greater depth and realism, and can be modified in real time.
- •Dorsey said the cost of making and correcting mistakes is falling, enabling faster iteration and decision-making.
- •In February, Block laid off over 4,000 employees (about 40%), with AI-driven efficiency cited as a contributing reason.
- •The article situates Block’s shift within a broader trend, citing Perplexity’s memo-based investor communications and earlier anti-slide policies at Amazon and Apple.