Source : Slide Heroes
BCG Case Study
Top down, Catchy pitchy title -> Explanation sentence -> Content
The start
Drivers
- Who ? Why are we speaking to our audience (identify their question)
- Why? What is our answer to our audience’s question ?
- What? How will we deliver this presentation ?
- How?
What do we want to achieve ?
The Who ?
Everything is for them, Audience is the Hero. Ask yourself what is in it for them ? -> Meet the needs of the audience
Who really matters in the crowd ?
- Legitimate or positional
- Expert
- Referent power
- Coercive
- Reward
How you approach the meeting knowing the audiance is crucial. It can shape the dynamics of the whole meeting and presentation
The Why : Building introductions
Answer a question that is in the mind of the audience
Example : Our database is inefficient and needs to be replaced, how do we go about selecting and installing an alternative solution ?
Structure the presentation to plant the question into the minds of our Audience
Then we will present the answer to this question
The audience cannot leave the meeting confused
What is the audience question -> what the presentations is about
Example for true questions :
- How do we go about selecting and installing an alternative solution ?
- Do I need new database software ?
Do not spend your time answering the wrong question
The context -> In Q1 global federated universal growth strategy project concluded that russia presented great opportunity for growth
Catalyst -> Global federated universal hasasked for help in devleoping a strategy for entering russia
Question -> How do we enter Russia ?
The Why: Next steps
What are the next steps
Purpose? Exemple : Audiance to review proposal by the end of the week and provide feedback
Identify the nature of the next steps, inform the structure of our deck
To start : start on a single and importamt objective, once done think about the subsequent elements
Power of logical structure
Idea Generation
How to we answer the question we planted into the mind of our audiance?
Create Ideas first, slides second -> try to delay the slides creation in ppt as long as possible
Gathering ideas and content
- Gather existing content
- Expand and improve on existing content
- Create new analysis
Two techniques :
- Brainstorming
- Visual thinking tools
Brainstorming is:
- Less effective than solo, independent creative thinking
- Groups that engage in debate and dissent come up with more ideas and their ideas are more original
We have to engage in debate : dissent stimulates new ideas because it encourages us to engage more fully with the work of others and to reassess our viewpoints
Criticism allows people to dig below the surface of the imagination and come up with collective ideas that aren’t predictable
Four cardinal rules for bainstorming session success
- Only invite brains = no yes/no man (alwasys agreeing with the boss)
- No wet blankets = opinionated negative persons
Visual thinking tools
Use sticky notes (different colors for different kind of ideas for instance) to attach ideas on index cards (index cards for structure)
Mind maps are useful for idea generation
Digital equivalent = Evernote
I am startint to be on the look out for the big ideas, exceptionnally compelling ensuring the answer I provide to the question of the audiance is a knock out
What is structure ?
Brings order and clartity and enables comprehension
It is the arrangement of our ideas and arguments
Structure <> Ideas
The principle of abstraction
- First transmit big ideas, then transmit little ideas
As we drill down the ideas become more detailed
Key questions : What is the right way of framing these ideas to make your argument ?
What is the right order to introduce your ideas ?
Classic way to make an argument :
Deductive reasoning
- Starts out with a general statement or hyptothesis,m and examines the possibilities to reach a spüecific logical conclusion, presents ideas in successive steps
Inductive reasoning
- Also known as induction or bottomo up logic, constructs general arguments tzhat are derived from specific examples , might condlude with a claim that is only based on a sample of information
Inductive arguments are easier for our audience to absorb, beaause they require less effort to understand
Ordering ideas :
- Time order : what came first, what came second
- Cause & Effect : Cause, folloed by effect, where the second even (effect) is understood to be a consequence of the first
- Degree, order of importance : Ideas are listed by order of importance
- Underlying process: A sequence of steps required to accompluish something
Group of concept
Group things further and probably add additonal levels of abstraction if your group is not homegenous
MECE : Mutually exclusive collectively exhausted
Concept is :
Rule of 7 :
- Process 4 or 5 concepts and only 1 at a time, so structure it this way
Interesting read : https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/14/structure?currentPage=all
ART OF STORYTELLING
Using Stories
Stories stick. Our brain reacts to stories.
What is a story ?
Story are an exchange of meaning from one person to another
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn doing them – Aristote
What advantages do stories provide ?
In business context :
- Stories increase trust by creating a bond between storyteller and listener -> we connect with others with stories they can relate to
- Help get the audience to agree with you -> Stories relax the audiance, creates story listening trance, critical thought paused, Stories encourage agreement
- Make messages more meaningful, understandble and memorable -> we find it easier and more efficient to process stories, audience more likely to repeat them to others
What are the characteristics of a good story ?
- Simplicity : The essential core of an idea, expressed succintly. Sounds bites are not the goal here, proverbs are
- Unexpectednes : things that surpirse cut throught the clutter, grab our audiences attention and get noticed
- Concreteness : Specificity and concrete language make our ideas clear and understandble
- Credibility : A grain of truth that will allow our audience to believe our ideas
- Emotion : for people to care about an idea they must first feel something
How do I use stories in presentations ?
- Use a springboard story
- Use an analogy (compare new car to a kiss and transfer excitement of the kiss to the car, even if those two are not related at all)
- Use an image as a metaphor
Use stories in the middle to exemplify and give meaning to key points you are making
Use a story at the end to provide one last inspiring thought before you finish. (video, poetic quote or something)
Exchange giving suggestions for telling stories
Be strategic in what stories you tell and when
Watch
Read
- Carmine Gallo in Bloomberg Businessweek
- Using Storytelling to Strengthen Your Presentations by Carmine Gallo
Story boards in Presentations
Adapted from film and television world
Presentation drawn in pictures
You literraly draw the presentation in boxes that each represent a slide
Why storyboarding :
- Reveals the big picture of how our story will unfold
- Allows story to be broken down into ist component parts
- Improves production process
- Keeps team members on the same page
- Reduces amount of time needed to make edits
- Delays focus on design until ideas have crystalized
- Helps us to come up with fresh ideas
First approach -> Test based outline -> full story broad
Second approach -> go directly to full story broad
Storyboarding tips :
- Create an argument map
- No ‘A’s for design and beauty
- Focus on introduction and next steps
- Collaborate
- Iterate – Fine tune
Harmony of design
Visual perception and communication
Visual thinking is common (60-65% of the population)
Visual spatial thinkers
- Think primarily in pictures
- Have visual strenghts
- Relate well to space
- Learn Concepts all at once
- Learn best seeing relationships
Auditory-sequential thinkers
- Think primarily in words
- Are step-by-step learners
- Are analytical thinkers
- Attend well to details
Golden rule : Make use of words & graphics : Our presentations must use a combination of words and graphics to communicate our messages in order to reach people with all typesof learning preferences
Transformartion of ideas -> graphical representations
The fundamental elements of design in detail
Our design goal is Harmony and Simplicity – the concert of separate elements
There are 7 design elements and principles that are important to be aware of when designing a presentation
- Contrast : Our eyes like contrast, tool for emphasis,
- Repetition : Design is viewed as being part of a larger whole -> standard design for graphs, section slides, standard fix locations for footnotes etc, progress through presentation marker
- Alignment : Learn to use alignment
- Proximity : group items that have something in common
- Typography : Custom fonts gives it a special taste -> use google fonts (especially if pdf shared), You can use 2 fonts as well one for headers one for body for isntance but think about the font combination (Dosis + Open sans, Fjalla + Cantarell, Lato + Grand, Oswald + Droid sans)
- Color : 2/3 colors, colored but not colorfull, can use https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
- White space : Improved legibility, Higher comprehension, Increased attention, Creates the right tone
For white space :
- The equivalent of 1/4 of a line between lines. ‘Exactly’ setting in the paragraph formatting settings
- The equivalent of 1 line between paragraphs
- Limit the number of words to under 30
Gestalt Principles of visual perception
Slide composition
Compose slide to reinforce main message !
Headlines : No longer than two lines and a font size no smaller than 22 points.
The main message of the slide has to be in the headline, it has to be informative like “The US manufactures 75% of what it consumes” you don’t have to study what is in the slide to determine the message yourself.
Structure
Check the slide template provided with the course (kicker, stamps, 2 to 3 columns etc).
Using photography
User powerful images, usage judiciously, don’t use clip art
Swipe files : Collection of useful slide designs and frameworks that you can utilize for inspiration
Avoid using is slide master :
- Company logos and branding
- Banners
- Trademarks and confidentiality messages
PERIODIC TABLE OF VISUALIZATION METHODS
Fact – based Persuasion
Facts are crucial to convince.
Make arguments with facts : To convince and persuade in today’s corporate world business people must constuct evidence-based arguments. They must demonstrate, not simply assert
Bare assertion : a premise in an argument that is assumed to be true merely because it says that it is true (I am right because I say I am)
Graphical excellence :
- Efficient : gives the viewer the greatest number of ideas, in the shortest time, with the least ink, in the smallest space
- Multivariate : Is nearly always multivariate – Involving more than one variable
- Honest : Requires telling the truth with the data
Three rules of thumb :
- Show the data : Do not lose sight of the number one objective – present the data. All else is secondary
- Maximize data ink : Maximize the amount of ink used to display data and minimize the extraneous non-data related ink on the page
- Use small multiples : Graphics can be shrunk way down. Well designed small multiples are comparative, high density, efficient in interpretation
Watch Data visualization
Tables versus Graphs
- Quantitative data measures something
- Categorical : identifies what the quantitative data measure
Basic Graphs
8 types of Relationships :
- Nominal comparison : discrete quantitative values, emphasis distinction, Barcharts are perfect
- Time series : quantitative values featuring something changing over a time. You can also use line graphs, linking all the data points with lines
- Ranking : how indivual values relates to each other sequentially, bar charts are perfect for this
- Part to whole : Show how a part of something relates to the whole
Don’t use Pie Charts ! Bars are better, waterfall charts are not bad as well
- Deviation : displays how one set of values differ from another set of values, can be as bars, or as line graphs as well
- Distribution : how values are distributed over full range
- Correlation : display relationship between two pared sets of data : scatter plot
- Geospatial : display the geographical position of values, on a map
Ask yourself what are you trying to say with your data.
Specialist Graphs
Bubble chart : scatter chart with the size of the points embedding another dimension of data.
Waterfall chart is best used when there is a grow and a decrease
Marimekko chart is very popular in management consulting, composition of markets, lots of data displayed. It requires explanation to read though. A few nice examples :
Tornado diagrams : great to display sensibility of something to other variables. Sensitivity analysis
Motion Charts : Dynamic charts to explore values over time, animated graphs
Do not use the following graphs : Donuts charts (oups), no 3D, do n ot use circle charts
watch Journalism in the age of data
The Drama of the presentation
Preparation :
- Develop a script
- Rehearse script until memorized
- Use script as safety net
Each slide helps tremendously, it serves as a map
The script is developed after the deck is written, it is not a regurgitation of the content already on the slide.
Critical factors of successful presentation delivery :
- Clarity : script voice over to provide additional clarity, simplify language ! Interpret slides, Anticipate questions and pro actively address them
- Pace : Speaking quickly impedes comprehension whem, the audience’s primary language is not your own, when you speak with an accent, work at slowing the pace of your delivery, pause repeatedly and ask if there are questions. End on time, practice !
- Engaging with audiance : Starts with the audience map, you identified the key people and the message to be given. Monitor your audience reactions and adapt and adjust. Clarify, Expand on your point or move more quickly through this section depending on the reaction.
- Making eye contact : Make eye contact and smile ! Try and make eye contact with key members of the audience, do not overly focus on one or two people, Smile, do it at the beginning of your presentation
Test presentation length : Do an initial run through, first time takes longest, time will shorten with practice, but then you will get confortable and run off tracks more often, keep 2 mins per slide.
Get feedback from somebody, develop as well backup plans.
Preparation process :
- Do an initial run through of the presentation. Speak the presentation out loud and improvise
- Write this version down as a formal script
- Run through the presentation two or three more times working on length, simplifying the language
- If the length needs editing, revise the presentation, eliminating or combining slide ideas
- Present to someone else to solicit feedback and simulate a live presentation
- Run through the script a few more times and then park it
- Get a good night’s sleep; review the script once or twice just before the presentation
Performance :
Pre presentation flight check :
Prior to arriving
- Confirm time of the presentation
- Confirm appropriate attire
- Request special requirements
- Bring backups
- Charge laptop battery in advance
- Have conference call number
At location :
- Visit meeting room
- Identify place to stand so that the audience can see you clearly
- Determine if the room is set up satisfactorily
- Ensure all required visual aids are in the room
- Check projector is working
- Check internet connection (if needed)
- Dial in to conference number for remote participants
- Ensure you can work the technology smoothly and effectively
Public speaking
Manage stress : Prepare, Quiet your mind, Breathe, Laugh, Remember your audience flaws
Set the right tone : Send thoughtfully written agenda, Dress appropriately, Adopt right disposition, Have conviction
Be yourself :
Communicate with your body & voice : Common mistakes are : no emotion, you are not a robot, talking to the screen, Verbal ticks, Closed posture. Steps to take : Record yourself, get feedback from others
Answer your audience questions : Answer your audience’s questions. Even when they do not know how to properly frame their confusion as a question. Plan for taking questions, Anticipate what questions you are likely to be asked, Listen, answer underlying questions, End with a bang
