What Nvidia’s CEO Can Teach Us About Content Creation (Framework)

The way Jensen Huang and other Nvidians interact within the company stems from its organizational structure, which Jensen calls a “neuron network,” where everyone’s contribution equally matters.

As he shared in an interview with Acquired:

He essentially contraposes Nvidia’s company culture, which he calls “flat,” to a more traditional pyramid structure where communication travels from top to bottom.

Basically, instead of having e-staff pass notes from him to mid- and entry-level employees, Jensen chooses to be accessible to everyone and has others do the same.

It often manifests in how he runs meetings at Nvidia.

In an interview with Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal from Acquired, he reflected on one such meeting.

Such a choice of organizational structure and approach to communication stems from Jensen Huang’s personal beliefs.

Here’s what he shared with Shantam Jain at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

With this belief, he sets an example for other employees in communicating, saying that no task is beneath him.

He sees it as empowerment leadership, as he mentioned in the talk with Shantam Jain.

You might be thinking,

Not really.

For many years, good old email has been and remains the top communication tool at Nvidia.

However, there’s a particular way employees and Jensen share email messages, which became the topic of Business Insider’s article mentioned in the intro.

Let’s talk more about it.

Nvidia’s email writing framework

This phrase from The New Yorker article essentially proves that email dominates Nvidia’s internal interactions.

But these are not long-reads or novel-length explanatory notes.

As Nvidia employees shared in the piece by Business Insider, these messages usually list the top five things—so-called work priorities.

According to them, work emails must (i.e., Jensen Huang demands it) possess the following characteristics:

• Concision;
• No more than 5-6 lines;
• Double-spaced;
• One sentence per line.

Insiders call it a “staccato type of email,” which “fosters the crystallization of priority and thought.”

Editor’s Note: staccato refers to a musical term where each note is performed in a sharply detached and separate manner.

If we put these characteristics into a framework, it would look something like this.

Now, this framework reflects our stance on how employees write emails at Nvidia, which might differ from the real process.

However, based on the feedback shared by former employees with Business Insider, we can assume that an internal email:

• Includes a short intro (if any);
• Goes straight to listing the top five things or priorities;
• Doesn’t include a conclusion or a sign-off.

This approach retains maximum brevity.

By the way, this method doesn’t only apply to work-related issues.

Jensen also encourages his co-workers to share personal insights in the same manner.

Here’s what he said in an interview with Joel Hellermark from Sana.

In fact, he’ll not just read it.

He’ll answer it but in his own unique way.

Several months before the aforementioned Business Insider article went live, the source published another one, revealing how Jensen Huang approaches email replies.

“Huang’s emails resemble the Japanese poetry style haiku,” shared one executive.

Another one likened Jensen’s messages to ransom notes.

Quite an interesting comparison, isn’t it?

We decided to translate both these approaches to email replies into frameworks to see what it would look like in practice.

Structuring an email as a ransom note

A ransom note is a message from kidnappers setting forth the requirements for the kidnapped to be released.

Putting aside the obviously illegal nature of such a note, it actually has a pretty interesting structure.

Take a look at the example below.

P.S. We tried to keep it as light-hearted as possible.

What do we see here (besides a threat)?

• There’s a clear problem statement: “Here’s what’s happening right now.”
• The problem is followed by an immediate solution: “Do this, and all will be well.”

How can we apply it to email writing?

Let’s assume that an executive emailed Jensen Huang stating that one of the teams would not complete the task before the deadline.

A potential response could sound like this.

As you can see, this email is the definition of the word straightforward.

Nvidians also admit that such emails come off a bit harsh.

According to what they shared with Business Insider,

Nevertheless, such a method of email writing actually aims to communicate a problem and a solution as directly as possible.

At least, that’s what experts in academic writing say.

The theory behind ransom note writing

Pat Thomson, Associate Professor at the University of South Australia School of Education, ran a fascinating experiment.

In her blog, she describes giving two student groups a task to formulate a thesis using the ransom note format.

Surprisingly, students found it difficult for several reasons (according to her observation):

• It was hard to move away from detail to a big-picture message, which is crucial for thesis formulation.
• Some students could not produce a definitive argument.
• Many thought nuances mattered and struggled to remove them from the final statement.

However, a practice involving the ransom note format helped students set the direction for the entire conversation from the position of authority.

No fluff, straight to business.

The same can be said about Jensen Huang’s second approach to writing emails (as per his co-workers)—a haiku poem.

Styling an email as a haiku

Urgency.

A mutual help needed

Beyond the support.

This is how one would formulate the ransom note email example from above in the style of a haiku poem.

Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines and a certain number of syllables per line—5-7-5.

If we break down the example above into syllables, it will look like this:

Editor’s Note: using an indefinite article before the words ‘mutual help’ is considered a grammatical mistake, but it is allowed in poetry to maintain the rhythm.

With the haiku format, you can convey a message in under ten words—precisely what Jensen Huang strives to achieve with his emails.

Research also favors this format and its ability to communicate complex concepts.

The theory behind haiku writing

Historically, haiku served as a means of “expressing much and suggesting more in the fewest possible words,” as the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it.

However, besides its literary importance, haiku has become a kind of exercise that trains you to relay content with accuracy and fluency.

For instance, an article from the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education suggested using haikus alongside explanations in prose to better grasp different addiction models.

Such an approach helped:

• Create accurate descriptions of the discussed concepts;
• Bridge interdisciplinary connections;
• Facilitate the understanding of complex ideas.

In language learning, the social-expressivist approach often uses haiku as a method to teach students how to express themselves in a concise but direct way.

All of this works for email writing, too, if your goal is to communicate an intricate matter with brevity while preserving important details.

All three methods of crafting and replying to emails used by Jensen Huang and Nvidia employees fall under the umbrella of the TL;DR approach.

Essentially, they summarize the key message through different formats and angles.

The question is, can we apply them to long-form content, like a blog post?

Generally speaking, using the TL;DR section before a long read is a common practice.

If you are subscribed to the GrowthWaves newsletter, you’ll find that all the notes have it, too (under Key Findings).

However, the TL;DR section can sometimes appear quite wordy and lengthy, depending on how much information you want to share.

Methods used at Nvidia can help fix that.

We used our own blog post titled How to Create a B2B Content Marketing Strategy in 2024 to illustrate how this would work.

The article already has the Key Findings section, so we decided to reformulate it into a:

• Top 5 Outtakes list;
• A ransom note-like summary;
• A haiku-like recap.

To remind you, with the Top 5 Outtakes, we need to follow a specific format:

• Straightforward outline;
• 5-6 lines;
• Double-spaced;
• One sentence per line.

Here’s what we got.

Here we have the gist of the article squeezed into six lines:

• An introductory sentence;
• Five key takeaways.

Indeed, such an approach doesn’t provide substantial information to understand the topic, but it also doesn’t give away too many details, encouraging the reader to explore the article in full.

How about a ransom note style?

This format implies a problem statement followed by a solution.

Here’s what we came up with.

As you can see, the second sentence contains the core lesson the reader would draw from the entire article.

You can follow up the summary with “How?” and transition to the next section.

Finally, we have the haiku format, the most challenging one to apply.

The approach is the same—a problem statement with an offered solution, but in a more creative form (3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables).

Here’s what we came up with.

We admit that this verse sounds a bit ambiguous.

However, while summarizing the core gist of the article, it also serves as a good hook, too.

Coupled with 2-3 descriptive sentences, it can become a great introduction to an article, effectively enticing the reader to explore the topic deeper.

So, we can safely say that it’s possible to apply all three TL;DR frameworks used by Nvidia to long-form content, like blog posts.

However, the nature of these frameworks will change.

The Top 5 Priorities approach will provide an overview of the article by listing the key details the reader needs to know.

The ransom note format lets the reader know what problem is being investigated and how it can be solved.

Finally, the haiku format can generalize the article outtakes in a rather cryptic manner.

But given the nature of blog posts, the last two methods can serve as hooks to grab the reader’s attention, while the first one simply states the facts. Yet, you can also modify it with a transition.

Thus, you have three great frameworks that can help diversify your content, no matter the format and purpose.