M03 Level Setting Template: SAF

Use this template to create the opening "level-setting" slide for any customer presentation. The level-setting slide tells the audience: (1) what you will cover, (2) what level of technical depth to expect, and (3) what decision or action you are asking for. It aligns cognitive load before the first architecture slide appears.

Slide 1: Agenda & Level-Setting (recommended: 1 slide)

Slide Title

Section 1: Who Is in the Room (to calibrate depth)

Name the audience types present and what each group cares about most. This signals to each person that you designed this presentation for them.

Section 2: What This Session Covers

3–5 bullets, in business language. No technical jargon. "The data we'll review" not "the telemetry pipeline architecture."

Section 3: What We Are Asking For Today

State the decision explicitly. Ambiguous endings produce stalls. "We are asking for approval to proceed to Phase 2 design" is better than "We'd love to hear your thoughts."

Depth Signal (choose one per audience)

Audience present	Depth level	What they will see in this deck
C-Suite / Board	Strategic (Outcomes only)	3–5 element diagrams, business metrics, investment summary
VP / Director	Operational (Tradeoffs)	Architecture overview, key decisions, timeline, cost summary
Engineering	Technical (Implementation)	Detailed architecture, integration specs, open questions
Mixed (all of the above)	Layered: see next section	Start strategic, offer to go deeper by audience segment

Slide 2: The Business Outcome (1 slide, always first after agenda)

Business Outcome Statement

One sentence. Not a technology statement. Not a capability. A measurable change in the customer's business. Complete the sentence below.

Template: "By [date], [customer] will be able to [business capability], which means [customer's customer / end-user] will experience [specific change], reducing [cost/risk] and enabling [growth/compliance/etc.]."

Supporting Metrics (3 max)

Metric	Current State	Target State	Timeline

Layered Depth Strategy (for mixed audiences)

When executives and engineers are in the same room, structure the deck in three layers. Move through layers explicitly; give each group permission to leave after their layer.

Layer	Content	Duration	Who stays
Layer 1: Strategic	Business outcome, investment summary, key decision requested	10–15 min	All
Layer 2: Operational	Architecture overview, timeline, tradeoffs, cost model	20–30 min	VP / Director + Engineering
Layer 3: Technical	Deep-dive architecture, integration specs, open items list	30–45 min	Engineering only

Script: "We're about to move into the technical details. If you're a business leader and you have what you need, you're welcome to drop off the call at this point. Engineers, let's go deeper."

Level-Setting Slide Template: Audience Calibration