How to Give a Knockout Presentation

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How to Give a Knockout Presentation

• Willis Jensen
• SOS Seminar
• February 28, 2006

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Outline

• General Guidelines
• Slide Dos and Donts
• Handouts
• Powerpoint Navigation
• Delivery Dos and Donts
• How to Handle Questions
• Final Thoughts

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• Disclaimer
• I dont claim to be an expert, Ive just had to
  do a lot of presentations and have seen a lot of
  presentations (both good and bad)
• Acknowledgements
• While at 3M, I learned presentation skills and
  subsequently taught sessions on this as part of
  Six Sigma training

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Why are presentation skills important?

• Job Hunting
• Academia (Crucial to Tenure)
• Conferences, Seminars, Teaching classes
• Industry (Way of Life)
• Training, Project Reports, Reports to Management
• Other
• Speaking in church, politics, fund raising,
  community service, etc.

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General Guidelines

• A good presentation is a POPTA presentation
• What does POPTA stand for?

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General Guidelines

• Purpose
• You need to define your purpose for giving the
  presentation
• Teach, Persuade, Prove, Review, Expository,
  Impress, Put to Sleep, Entertain?
• Often your goal is a high level overview, even
  for a technical presentation
• Dont tell them everything you did, youll bore
  them

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General Guidelines

• Organization
• Always have an outline
• Tell them what youre going to tell them, then
  tell them, then tell them what you told them
• Hint I am doing this for this presentation
• Problem then solution
• Not just data then solution or solution then
  problem

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General Guidelines

• Preparation
• An unprepared presenter loses the audience before
  even starting
• Practice makes perfect and builds confidence
• Arrive early, make sure everything is set up
• Dress appropriately
• Better to dress up than down
• Slides should be done well in advance

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General Guidelines

• Time
• Be sure you know how much time you have while
  preparing the presentation
• Not 5 minutes before you start
• It is better to end early than to go over
• Always have a watch or clock in view
• Youll never have enough time to tell everything
  so stick to the most important
• Rule of thumb
• At most 1 slide per minute of presentation
• Better to plan 2 minutes for each slide

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General Guidelines

• Audience
• Be sure you know your audience well
• Tailor presentation to your audience
• Failure to do this is probably the biggest
  mistake people make
• You should never give the same presentation twice
• Are there multiple audiences?
• If so, direct different slides to different
  audiences
• Watch the audience for clues

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Slide Dos and Donts

• PowerPoint doesnt give presentations
  PowerPoint makes slides
• From microsoft.com website
• Your comments should be more compelling than the
  slides
• You shouldnt put everything on the slide
• K.I.S.S. Principle

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Do include 50 white space
• Do make it obvious which section of your outline
  youre in
• Do make each slide stand on its own
• Generally 1 main point for each slide
• Do use animation
• Dont overuse it
• Makes it difficult and annoying to navigate

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Do include written conclusion for every graph
• Dont forget to add meaningful labels, titles,
  captions, etc. to graphs

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Dont use yellow text
• Do use dark text and bold
• Do use formatting and color to emphasize (e.g.
  POPTA)
• Dont include unrelated pictures

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Dont include periods at the end of a bullet.
• Dont do proofs
• Do include a journal name with a reference
• Jensen, Jones-Farmer, Champ, and Woodall (2006,
  Journal of Quality Technology)

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Dont do serif fonts (like Times New Roman)
• Do use sans serif fonts (like Arial)
• or Tahoma

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Do save your file using embedded fonts
• File menu-gtSave As-gtTools (in upper right hand
  corner)-gtSave Options-gtEmbed True Type Fonts

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Dont just copy formulas and equations from your
  work (dissertation, paper, etc.)
• Also known as equationitis
• Do use formulas and equations sparingly
• Do explain all notation used

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Do chek yor speling for mestakes
• Typos instantly destroy credibility and convey
  lack of preparation
• Do have someone else read through presentation
• Do acknowledge previous work and help
• Do use a template if using PowerPoint
• Do put title slide at the end

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Do use a light background like this

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Or like this

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Or like this

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Dont use a dark background like this
• Even if using a lighter font color
• Harder to read, especially from the back
• More likely to put people asleep
• Handouts often dont look very good

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Slide Dos and Donts

• Surveys
• Quizzes
• Videos
• Physical Objects
• Top Ten Lists
• Etc.

• Do use occasional spice or pace breakers
• Humor
• Pictures
• Sound
• Animation
• Questions (Not just
• Yes/No)

For example . . . A pace breaker can do this for
your audience
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(No Transcript)
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Handouts

• Use them if they help achieve your objective
• Especially for technical presentations
• Greatly increases retention
• Often best to pass out at the end
• You want to keep the audience engaged

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Navigation in PowerPoint

• Always go through your presentation in slide show
  mode before giving it
• Multiple times
• Use keyboard short cuts, not the mouse
• F1 (in slide show mode)
• To bring up the list of all shortcut keys (Escape
  to hide the list)
• Use this while practicing to help you learn the
  navigation

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Navigation in PowerPoint

• To start slide show mode
• F5 (Automatically takes you to start of
  presentation)
• To end slide show mode
• Escape

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Navigation in PowerPoint

• Home
• To go to the beginning slide
• End
• To go to last slide
• Type the slide , then Enter
• To jump to any particular slide
• B
• Black screen
• W
• White screen

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Dont read or parrot the slides
• Otherwise, why give a presentation?
• Do use the slides as a cue
• Let audience read
• Do use pointers sparingly
• They magnify nervousness
• Create slides and use animation that emphasize
  your points

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Do plan breaks for longer presentations
• 10 minutes for every hour
• Do be passionate about the topic
• Have fun, this is your opportunity
• If your audience doesnt know why your topic is
  important, youve lost them
• Dont forget to practice
• Record yourself, tape yourself, or use a mirror
• Reading through slides does not count as practice

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Do relax, use nerves to your advantage
• Breathe deeply, pause as needed
• Dont go too fast
• Do watch out for mannerisms
• Um . . um
• Do empty your pockets and hands
• Dont point at computer, point at the screen

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Do use body language to help make a point
• Purposeful movements
• Do use appropriate posture
• Dont slouch
• Sitting implies informality
• Do move around if possible
• Dont pace
• Dont be hyperactive
• Center yourself, rearrange setup if needed

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Do face audience more than slides
• Dont talk to the screen or wall
• Do vary your voice
• Dont speak in monotone
• Most people speak too soft, not too loud
• Do memorize slide numbers for key slides
• Or transition points
• Do get honest feedback from someone you trust

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Delivery Dos and Donts

• Dont forget to smile

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Handling Questions

• Welcome them
• Lots of questions are either a sign of
• Interest in what you are talking about
• Audience internalizing
• Failure to communicate an idea
• Meaning that the person still wants to understand
• Always repeat the question
• For you to make sure you understood it
• For audience to make sure they heard it

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Handling Questions

• Answer the question to the audience
• Then check back to the individual for
  confirmation
• Dont be afraid to say I dont know
• Better than mumbling or fumbling an answer

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Final thoughts

• POPTA
• Good slides go a long way
• Practice, practice, practice
• Remember that the audience wants you to succeed
• Use other resources (Books, web, etc.)
• Anyone can learn to be a better presenter!

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How to Give a Knockout Presentation

• Willis Jensen
• SOS Seminar
• February 28, 2006