Preparing presentations
haideralmosawi • 6 Feb 2025 •
In 5 minutes I’m going to hop on a call with a colleague to go over a PowerPoint presentation we’re preparing. There are different dimensions to an effective presentation. What often gets neglected is a VERY clear understanding of who the target audience is and how they think/what they care about. We need to address people based on what they know and what they’re interested in.
Ideas must also be presented in a logical sequence. What’s the connection of this slide to the one before it and the one after it? Are we guiding the reader’s attention in a smooth way or a jarring way?
Formatting is also important. Tiny text leads to an uncomfortable reading experience. A presentation should feel like the reader is being gently guided towards an outcome they care about.
What do you think is most important in preparing a presentation?
Comments
The cardinal rule: don’t be boring. Also, giant blocks of text or lots of bulleted lists are a no-no. If a presenter shows a slide with a bunch of words for me to read, then why do I need the presenter? Just give me the slide deck, and I’ll learn on my own.
The thing that gets to me in the office when it comes to presentations is… the silly metric of limiting the number of slides. As if less slides means faster. What often happens is people cramp too much info into 1 slide and it gets hard to even comprehend it. Whereas if I can spread it out, structure a flow of understanding, it’s a better slidedeck, even if longer. Most dumbass, counterproductive thing ever
@Winkletter Great point. Simon Wardley the maps guy? I checked out one of his vids and enjoyed his presentation style, but I found the maps a bit hard to digest, especially since I’ve developed an allergy to anything remotely complicated when it comes to business processes. 😭
@therealbrandonwilson Some great points here. The presentation I’m working on will actually be emailed to a potential investor, but I still think a large font and few words work better. I’m also treating these presentations as a conversation across a few presentations (slides): first the problem we’re targeting and the business opportunity, then the financials and more of the nitty-gritty details of our business.
@jasonleow I was going to say that I’ve not come across such a metric, but it’s actually been an implicit metric we’re forcing ourselves to stick to! “THE competitive analysis slide”… Actually, I need a few more slides to flesh out why we’re different without trying to cram everything in and resorting to tiny text to say everything we need to say.
@haideralmosawi Someone needs to write a book on Wardley maps without the maps–just the insights.
Engagement. The best presenter I’ve ever seen is Simon Wardley and I think his superpower is wrapping everything up in stories.