What does show and tell mean in a tech company?

Show and tell is an informal, interactive meeting where team members present their recent work, projects, or discoveries. It differs from a formal presentation because it encourages questions, discussion, and real-time feedback. The goal is knowledge sharing and team learning rather than persuading or making formal decisions.

How long does a show and tell usually last?

Show and tell sessions typically last 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how many people are presenting and how much discussion is generated. Unlike formal presentations, they are flexible and conversations can extend naturally.

What should you present at a tech show and tell?

You can present work-in-progress projects, new features, prototypes, interesting technical solutions, side projects, tools you built, lessons learned, or any recent accomplishment. The key is that it should be interesting to your team and invite feedback or discussion.

Is show and tell formal or informal?

Show and tell is casual and informal. It prioritizes conversation and collaboration over polish and formality. However, the presentation should still be clear and well-organized enough for people to understand your work.

How do you prepare for a show and tell?

Prepare by organizing your thoughts, creating visuals if needed, setting up any demos or code to show, and thinking about what feedback or questions you hope to receive. Keep it conversational rather than reading a script.

show and tell meaning in tech — Speak Tech English

Commonness	4/5
Versatility	4/5
Formality	CasualFormalCasual
Spoken ↔ Written	SpokenWrittenBoth
Directness ↔ Diplomatic	DirectDiplomaticNeutral
Region	US and UK

Say it like this

✓We have a show and tell coming up next week

✓Let me show and tell you what we built

✓Our team does a monthly show and tell

Real examples

in a standup

"By the way, we should do a show and tell for the new caching system once it is ready for review."

in a team meeting

"Thanks for joining our show and tell today. The backend team will walk through their recent performance improvements."

in a Slack message

"Who wants to do a show and tell about their side projects at the next team meeting?"

Don't say this

Handle with care. Often confused with formal presentations or demos. Show and tell is more informal and interactive, meant for sharing work-in-progress or interesting discoveries rather than polished final products.

✕We need to show and tell this to the CEO for approval.

✓We should present this to the CEO for approval. We can do a show and tell with the team first.— Show and tell is typically informal and peer-level, not for executive approval or formal decision-making contexts.

✕I showed and told the bug yesterday.

✓I demonstrated the bug yesterday. We can do a show and tell about it with the team.— Show and tell is a session or event format, not a simple action verb. Use demonstrated or explained for individual actions.

✕The show and tell lasted five minutes.

✓The show and tell session lasted 30 minutes.— Show and tell sessions are typically longer (20-60 minutes) to allow discussion. Five minutes is too brief for the interactive format.

Other forms

noun

show and tell

"We held a show and tell last Friday to discuss our progress."

noun phrase

show and tell session

"The show and tell session gave everyone a chance to learn about the new database changes."

verb phrase

do a show and tell

"Let us do a show and tell to get feedback on the design mockups."

Often used with

do a show and tellTo organize or participate in a show and tell session

show and tell sessionThe formal event or meeting where show and tell takes place

internal show and tellA show and tell held only within a specific team or department

weekly show and tellShow and tell sessions held regularly each week

host a show and tellTo organize and facilitate a show and tell event

Similar words

demoMore formal and polished; emphasizes the final product demonstration

presentationMore formal and structured; typically one-way communication with less interaction

knowledge sharing sessionBroader term that can include show and tell but may have other formats

brown bag sessionInformal lunch-time educational session; similar casual tone but different purpose

Opposites

formal presentationclosed meetingtell only

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Practice

Try it

4 quick exercises

Pick the most natural phrasing

1. Your team finished a prototype and wants to gather feedback. What do you say?

We should do a show and tell with the team about our prototype.We need to show and tell everyone the prototype immediately.Let us execute a comprehensive show and tell presentation.I will demonstrate the show and tell prototype feature.

Complete the sentence

2. Next Friday we are _______ to share the new API documentation and answer questions.

Spot the mistake

3. Which sentence uses show and tell incorrectly?

Our engineering team hosts a monthly show and tell to discuss recent wins.The VP presented a show and tell to secure budget approval from the board.Let us do a show and tell about the machine learning model we developed.Everyone in the department attended the infrastructure show and tell yesterday.

Rewrite naturally

4. Rewrite this in natural tech English using show and tell: 'On Thursday the database team will explain and demonstrate the new query optimization improvements they made.'

Questions

Quick poll

Have you said "show and tell" in a standup this week?

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