This just doubles my question from reading the original post: A full half-hour, for a six-page memo? Are these incredibly dense and full of new information to the readers? People don't really read that slowly. Average adult reading speed is something like 250 wpm. Average memo might be, what, 300 wpp? So, six minutes to read, maybe ten if you're taking your time?
Not sure anyone has the answer, but that length of reading time vs. the presumed number of words to be read struck me as notable.
I worked at AWS for a while. So a lot of times when I've been in such meetings, the 6-page document was actually full of technical details (design docs, product FAQs, post-mortem reports, etc). So taking 20-30 mins to read through the full document, re-read some sections and write down questions/comments is not that unusual.
Maybe it's just being on a team that's more focused on nontechnical users, but I still see plenty of PowerPoint. Product, sales, and business process people seem to swim in the stuff.
When I was with AWS last year none of our meetings followed this type of structure. Someone put together a presentation in PowerPoint if needed, went through their items, people asked questions and action items were assigned. Pretty typical of any company I've worked for. Although I thought there were too many meetings to attend which took away many peoples development time.
Not sure anyone has the answer, but that length of reading time vs. the presumed number of words to be read struck me as notable.