How to Visualize a Great Presentation – Part One

Let’s dive into the Modern Presentation Method (MPM) and cover how to Visualize a great presentation.  I’m going to do it in three posts.  This one, the first, introduces Visualization and covers the first three steps.  The second post will be about something I like to call the Presentation Spectrum, which are all of the core types of presentations that a person might have to give and what makes them different.  The third post wraps up our high level overview of Visualization.

Many people, as soon as they start on a presentation, sit down in front of a computer and start building PowerPoint slides or a Word document.  Don’t do this.  Take your time and follow the Visualization process.  It can be done in just a few minutes for a hasty version or you can do a much more detailed version. 

Why Does It Matter?

Visualization is the most important step in the Modern Presentation Method.  Done right, you will save time later in the process as you will reach that 80-90% complete draft much faster and will less effort.  You will also build a better story frame.

What is Visualization?

Visualization is the process where you, the presenter, craft an outline for your presentation that is well thought out and is relevant to your needs and the audience needs.

There are eight simple steps.

 

Let’s take a walk through the first three:

1 – Get the Background on the Presentation

  Right out of the gate, you need to get some background on the presentation. 

•  First, who is the meeting owner?  I am often asked by an intermediary to do a presentation.  So-and-So’s administrative assistant will come up and ask me to present to So-and-So’s team on some subject.  The administrative assistant isn’t the meeting owner, it is So-and-So.  Always find out who the real owner is.
• Next, how much time is allotted to your presentation?  This gates how much content you will need.  The average speaker talks at 2.5 – 3 words a second.  For example, for a 30 minute presentation you should not exceed 4,500 words if you are a slow speaker.  Time also gates how complicated your presentation structure is.  Are you going to do just PowerPoint slides?  Do you want to have Q&A or a dialogue session?  All of this takes time.
•  Next, who will be in the audience?  Get a list of all attendees.  It’s even better if the list details what their role is and which company/group they work for. 
•  Where will the presentation be held?  Get the actual room # & name.  How many people does it hold and how is it setup?
• What Audio Visual is available in the room?  Is there a projector and a presentation machine already in the room?  Can you hook up a laptop?  Is there a whiteboard?  What is the audio setup?
• What is the stated purpose of the presentation?  Get a precise purpose from whoever is asking you.  Oftentimes I find that I am asked to do a presentation that has a vague purpose.  Recently I was asked to put together a class on how to build great slides.  It turns out after I talked to the person who wanted me to put this together that they really wanted a class on how to present to executives effectively.  Again, get the precise purpose defined.
• What is the sequence of events?  Many times you will be able to skip this step because it really only applies to presentations that are part of a larger event.  In the case where your presentation is part of such an event, like a conference, it is always a good idea to see where your presentation is in the batting order.  Who comes before you and what will they cover?  Who comes after you and what will they cover?  Often times I will build on themes of previous speakers.  “You heard Jon talking earlier about Widget X, and I wanted to follow that up with some more detail…”.  Even better, when I speak after a competitor I might take the opportunity to good naturedly point out where their “pitch” wasn’t entirely truthful.  One good point is to never repeat content and audience has already heard.  Audiences quite rightly dislike hearing the same content over and over.  It’s ok to reuse some content to frame your discussion, but do it quickly and get to the new content. 
• When do they need the presentation complete?  What is the work back schedule with key dates that the meeting owner wants?  When do they want to see drafts and do reviews of those drafts?  Is there a rehearsal?  Getting the details now will save you from big miscommunications later. 
• Where should I upload the presentation?  Is there a file share or a SharePoint site that you need to upload to?  If not, create one and store your drafts there and send that information to all stakeholders.
• Who will be introducing you?  Someone should always introduce you.  Take a few minutes and write them a 5 sentence blurb that they can use.  You’d be surprised how important it is to establish your credibility to the audience with a solid introduction.  It should be a fresh and interesting statement about who you are.  Done right, you have immediate credibility.  Done wrong….you will not connect with the audience.
• Last, will there be press?  Most of the time you won’t have to worry about this, but it is a big deal so never lose track of whether this is true or false.  This is important for two reasons.  First, you need to carefully vet everything you say in front of the press, lest a misstep end up on the front page of a news website.  Second, I will often go up and talk with the reporters about the pieces they are writing and determine what content they would like to hear.  You’ll be surprised how much they appreciate a speaker who takes the time to cover content they are interested in and a good story can often be the result.

A little background research goes a long way in this very critical step.  Use your time wisely, get the details up front, and a better presentation will be the result.

2 – Define the Audience Needs/Wants

Your goal in this step is to figure out what the audience wants.  A good presenter knows what the audience needs and feeds that need during the presentation. 

 So how do you do that?  In the previous step I asked you to get a list of all attendees.  That list should be as detailed as possible. 

At the very least I like to know:

1. What their full name is.
2. What company they are from.
3. What team or division do they represent?
4. What their title is. 
5. Their contact information.
6. Why are they coming to the presentation?

Now, take that list, import it into an Excel spreadsheet, and let’s do some analytics on it.

Look for commonalities amongst the audience members.  One of the first things to do is determine which percentage of the audience is in which role.  So organize by title.  For example, at our yearly Worldwide Partner Conference, almost 70% of my audience is comprised of executives (CEO’s, C-Level, Presidents, VPs).  Figuring this out helps me determine the altitude of the content.  For executives I know I should be presenting strategic level content that helps them make good decisions about the direction of their organization.  If I’m talking to sales people I know they want to know how to get more sales, so my altitude will be much lower and my content will be more action based so they can have great takeaways that they can action to become better sales people.

Another cut is which companies are they from?  And what do those companies do?  If you are talking to a bunch of folks from consultancies, your message should feed what a consultant needs to do a better job.  You get the point.

Even more important than company is what they do for that company.  What their role is and which team or division do they work for. Are they in sales?  Do they actually produce their company’s product and are in R&D or engineering?  Are they an executive that runs the marketing organization?  Again, look for the commonality.  For example if seventy percent of the audience is in marketing, make sure your content speaks to marketers.

Next, how many people are in the audience?  Generally speaking, smaller audiences are easier to have “dialogue” with.  You can have robust Q&A for example.  I usually categorize with what I call 7-30-100.  Seven people is a great number to have a rich back and forth.  The number is small enough you don’t need a moderator and everyone can gather around a whiteboard and pass paper effectively.  Thirty is when I usually add a moderator to the mix.  Someone whose job it is to keep us on track and focused.  It is tough to have a really rich back and forth because just a few people can dominate the room if you let them.  This is still small enough that you can have a dialogue though.  And one hundred and above is when it gets real tricky to have good back and forth.  With crowds like this, you can use twitter and a host of other tools to get real-time feedback and you can also setup up microphones for Q&A but again it is really tough to get great back and forth.

Last, try to determine what topics are top of mind for the audience.  I always talk directly to a smattering of audience members beforehand.  If it’s an external audience, I’ll call them up introduce myself.  If it’s an internal presentation within my company, I’ll schedule a quick 15 minute face to face meeting.  I keep my initial question high level.  “What are you hoping to hear at this presentation?”  And then once I hear the three or four things that are top of mind I drill down deeper on each one and find out what their needs really are. 

I then take all of this information into account when I create the content.  Your audience is the primary reason you are there to give your presentation and they should feel like you have taken the time to understand what they want from the presentation.  I almost always point out that I have talked to audience members beforehand and then I include their questions into the actual presentation itself. 

3 – Define Your Needs/Wants

Your next step is to figure out what you want.  Generally you are trying to one or more of the following four things. 

1. Observe / Inform / Status – You are trying to present some information that you think the audience should know.  The most classic example is teaching.  You present the material with the intention that the students learn the knowledge.  Another example would be the ubiquitous staff meeting.  “Here is the status of our world”.
2. Orient – You are trying to gain consensus about what the “truth” of a situation is.  Often times an outcome of a status meeting is “we need more data” or “I don’t think this can be true”.  When you orient an audience you are most likely bringing the “truth” to light and looking for consensus.
3. Act / Mission – These are meetings in which you focus a team on a specific objective and send them off to work.  A project plan meeting is an example.
4. Decision – These are meetings in which you put one or more courses of action in front of an audience and ask them to make a decision.  An interesting special case here is a sales pitch which is just a Decision presentation with only one course of action, the one you are trying to sell.

 Many presentations do one or more of the above.  Here are some examples of meeting types in action:

• Sales Pitch – Let me tell you about what is happening in our marketplace (Observe / Inform / Status), here’s some facts that support what I just told you (Orient), I think you only have one course of action which is to buy my product (Decide), now here are your calls to action to do that (Act).
• Staff Meeting – Everyone gets together and goes over the latest quarters business results (Observe / Inform / Status).  This is usually followed up by:
• Project Meeting – Everyone gets together and shares what they learned about the problems (Orient) and then the group develops some courses of action and decides what to do (Act).
•  All Hands – Once a month we get the whole team together, share the state of the business (Observe / Inform / Status) and then tell the team what we are doing project wise over the next month (Mission / Act)

Take a few minutes and determine which of these tasks you are trying to accomplish with your presentation.  Be crisp and précises and write out the objective you are trying to drive with your presentation:

• Decision + Act:  I want the audience to go out and buy my product.
• Orient + Decision:  I need the team to be in agreement on what we are going to do about this problem.
• Act:  I need the team to do this task in a coordinated fashion.

 

Summary for Part One

So that’s the first three steps of Visualization. 

1. Get the Background on the Presentation – Get the who, what, where, when, why, and how and set the expectation with the meeting or presentation owner on when and how you will deliver the content.
2. Define Your Needs/Wants – The audience is king.  If you do a good job defining what they need/want and this is reflected in your presentation you will have them on the edge of their seats.
3. Define the Audience Needs/Wants – Know what you want to accomplish with this presentation.  Write out those objectives and use them to guide you as you build content.

 Tomorrow I will introduce step four of Visualization which is determining what type of presentation you are trying to give.  And Thursday, we’ll cover the remaining steps.

Have a good day. 

DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com