PresentingStructure, story and support

I am Felienne

Feedback welcome!

@feliennemail@felienne.com

PresentingStructure, story and support

I am Felienne

Feedback welcome!

@feliennemail@felienne.com

Hi! In this slide deck, I’ll share three ways to impove your presentation skills:

StructureStoriesSupport

PresentingStructure, story and support

I am Felienne

Feedback welcome!

@feliennemail@felienne.com

Hi! In this slide deck, I’ll share three ways to impove your presentation skills:

StructureStoriesSupport

But first of all? Why would you want to be a better presenter?

First of all, to increase your impact.

This guy is famous Dutch scientist Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law for scientific impact.

K = I * A

First of all, to increase your impact.

This guy is famous Dutch scientist Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law for scientific impact.

Knowledge = Information * Audience

K = I * A

First of all, to increase your impact.

This guy is famous Dutch scientist Robbert Dijkgraaf and he has a law for scientific impact.

Knowledge = Information * Audience

So if you want your ideas to spread, make sure you have a big audience that is actually getting it.

If you don’t care about spreading your knowledge, you can improve your public speaking skills for you.

If you don’t care about spreading your knowledge, you can improve your public speaking skills for you.

Fear of public speaking is the second most common fear, second only to snakes.

If you become a better presenter (for example by following my tips) you’ll be more relaxed and less scared!

The good thing is that there is really only 1 rule to presenting. I know there are loads of lists like

‘the n tips for presenting like awesome person y’

But in my book, there is just 1 rule.

Ready for it?

Don’t lose your

audience

Easy, right?

The only thing you need to do is get your audience from the beginning to the end of your talk, without them being tempted to fall asleep/look out of the window/check their email.

Don’t lose your

audience

When preparing many presenters (myself included) think about themselves first:

What do I want to share?What will people think about me?

To make a great presentation, think about the audience first. What do they already know, what do they like or hate. And most important, what tools will I use to get them through my talk. This presentation gives you tools for achieving this.

Don’t lose your

audience

Another way of putting this is you have to minimize ‘exit moments’, moments where the audience might drop out.

Next time when you are at a conference and you feel tempted to stop paying attention, try to figure out why. Did you miss the ‘why’, was the speaker monotonous? Recognizing exit moments in others will help you prevent creating them yourselves.

Don’t lose your

audience

In the remainder of this presentation, I’ll share three techniques you can use to not lose the audience.

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

Don’t lose your

audienceEver sat in a presentation where you where like “why is he/she telling me this” or “where is this going?” And not in the good movie arc of tension style?

That is the sign of a badly structured presentation.

1) Right structure

Don’t lose your

audience

“Energy spent on trying to follow you

is not spent on listening to your

message”

Ever sat in a presentation where you where like “why is he/she telling me this” or “where is this going?” And not in the good movie arc of tension style?

That is the sign of a badly structured presentation.

1) Right structure

Structure gets your audience from A to B

Structure gets your audience from A to B

“Successful presenting is constantly answering the

questions the audience has in mind”

Stolen from this book ->It’s my favorite

“Successful presenting is constantly answering the

questions the audience has in mind”

In other words, you are having a

CONVERSATION

What people think about when they

prepare a talk

What you should think about when preparing a

talk

What you should think about when preparing a

talk

Most conversations do not go like this.

What kind of work do you do?

What kind of work do you do?

First I will tell you how local government works in the US

Then I will elaborate on the position of city treasurer

Finally, I will tell you about some legal troubles I am currently facing.

First I will tell you how local government works in the US

Then I will elaborate on the position of city treasurer

Finally, I will tell you about some legal troubles I am currently facing.

Most conversations do not go like this, because it sounds crazy.

First I will tell you how local government works in the US

Then I will elaborate on the position of city treasurer

Finally, I will tell you about some legal troubles I am currently facing.

Most conversations do not go like this, because it sounds crazy.

So please no more outlines (or as one of my colleagues calls it “the zone outline”)

Don’t waste time and scare people off with meta-remarks.

Think about

conversation

if you structure a presentation

Some ideas

So, if I don’t start with an intro, how shall I start then?

Some ideasStart with the end“40% more performance”

Some ideas

Start with how“We spoke with the lead dev”

Start with the end“40% more performance”

Some ideas

Start with how“We spoke with the lead dev”

Start with why“Building a web API is hard”

Start with the end“40% more performance”

In any case

Don’t copy the

paper

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

2) Adding stories

“Successful presenting is constantly answering the

questions the audience has in mind”

So how do you get the questions in?

“Successful presenting is constantly answering the

questions the audience has in mind”

Stories

Stories

Of an average presentation, how much is remembered after 3 months?

Stories 5%

Of an average presentation, how much is remembered after 3 months?

Adding visuals and storyline increases this to…

Adding visuals and storyline increases this to…

60%

Yes... but...

Now, you are like “yes, but my topic is so boring, I cannot not possibly add cool stories”

You were thinking that, right?

Sure, my topic is

Spreadsheets!

Spreadsheets! What is more boring than a

spreadsheet? Exactly.

If I can do it, so can you!

(Curious how I work stories in my talks? Have a look at this one)

Spreadsheets! What is more boring than a

spreadsheet? Exactly.

If I can do it, so can you!

I am going to presume you like your topic. So there must be a cool story there.

How did you start it? Did you manage to screw up big time once?

Stories like that stick.

A good story

There’s a great book on stories that stick, I highly recommend it.

A good story

S SimpleU UnexpectedC CredibleC ConcreteE EmotionalS Stories

There’s a great book on stories that stick, I highly recommend it.

Is says a story should be

A good story

There’s a great book on stories that stick, I highly recommend it.

Is says a story should be

These three are the easiest to start with.

S SimpleU UnexpectedC CredibleC ConcreteE EmotionalS Stories

An example

Here a standard slide on SickBeard. It’s a personal video recorder, etc.

My story for this:

Do you know what will happen on April 6th?

(It’s the launch of the new Game of Thrones. Crowd goes Yes, we know)

Don’t you dread that day? You can’t go on Twitter or Facebook, because your friends in the US have already seen in. So you have to hide from spoilers all day.

What would be worse than having to manually download the episode when you get home?

This is what SickBeard solves!

Appealing, right?

Simple (short)Concrete (relating to a real event)Emotional (dread, hide)

If you think about something that connects you to the audience, it is easy to come up with a good story.

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

2) Adding stories

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

2) Adding stories

3) Support

Once you have the right structure, and added memorable stories, the last thing you can do is support your presentation in the right way.

Supporting is done with:

• Beautiful slides• Good body language• Clear use of your

voice/speech

Awesome slides

You watched my slides so far, so I guess you have an idea on my tips for slide design:

• Consistent style

• One thought/sentence per slide

(Note I added these grey text boxes for the online version! They are not in the real slides)

The problem with text heavy slides is that the audience starts to read them, and stops listening to you.

Special attention to the final slide.

To often it is this:

Questions???

Special attention to the final slide.

Remember, this slide will most likely be on the screen the longest. So:

• Add your contact details• Summarize your results

Putting the science in computer

science

FelienneDelft University of Technology

These slides (with narrative) are on SlideShare.com/felienne

Want to know more?

• I’m around all day• Send me a tweet

(@felienne)

Or have a look at my websitewww.felienne.com

where I regularly cover the newest SE research

Body language

Body languageBody language can really

support your talk. This part of my tutorial was interactive and it is a bit hard to explain without, you know, a body, but I’ll give you some hints.

Curse of knowledge

But first, why care?

Because of the curse of knowledge. You think you are very clear, because you live and breath your topic. But you might not be as clear as you think.

Body languageBody language can underline

important parts of your sentences.

Instead of saying: we did two case studies one big and one small, try to use your body and stress ‘small’ with your hands.

Like this

“Small”

“Small”

I know this feels ridiculous in the beginning, but it really helps, especially if you are a non native speaker, or your audience are non native ‘listeners’

As an exercise, you can try to spot body words in either your own talks or others, and try gesturing them in your own talks.

Big, small, two, three, different, slow, all candidates from stressing with your body.

The final tool for supporting your talk is your voice.

My most important tip:

Pause.

Ideally between each sentence.

(if you watch talks, try to pay attenten to how many speakers pause or ‘ehm’ in the middle of sentences!)

But at least pause before and after important sentences. Ironically, the best way to get attention of the whole room is to shut up!

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

2) Adding stories

3) Support

That’s it! All you need to keep your audience awake.

Okay, not really.

Don’t lose your

audience1) Right structure

2) Adding stories

3) Support

One more thing…

PRACTICE !

PRACTICE !

You have to practice this stuff!

Please don’t think “I am’just’ not good at this”

No one is born a violin player or a marathon runner. Everyone needs practice.

I like this book, but the most important lesson I got from it is that even Steve Jobs practised and practised still, for every talk.

It is not a god given skill.

So look for user groups, meetups or toast masters in your neighbourhood. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

PresentingStructure, story and support

I am Felienne

Feedback welcome!

@feliennemail@felienne.com