How not to give a boring presentation...

There were a few comments lately about my approach. Seems like being told what "not to do" is not as useful as being told what to do. I apologize, but it was easier to just start this way. It is true that for some, to be told what not to do, is not helpful, because they simply do not do it. Also, some people catch quickly and when they see someone who is doing something "wrong" they learn not to do it. But, I don't think that ignoring the "bad" and just focusing on the "good" is the solution either. So let's aim for a balance of positive and negative lessons.

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Apple's Steve Jobs, arguable the best tech presenter today
One of the best way to learn from "the good" is to look at great presenters. Arguably, Apple's Steve Jobs is one of the best presenters in the technology world. There are plenty of people who follow and analyze Steve Jobs' presentations, not just for his ability to excite people, but also to learn from his style and skills. Let's look at an article from Business Week: How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs(APRIL 6, 2006). It is one of many that talks about what Steve Jobs does in his presentations. They make five points:

• Sell the Benefit - Steve Jobs does not sell bits of metal; he sells an experience.
• Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More - Jobs takes nothing for granted during product launches.
• Keep It Visual - Speaking of slides, there are very few bullet points in a Jobs presentation.
• Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm - Jobs has an infectious enthusiasm.
• "And One More Thing..." - At the end of each presentation Jobs adds to the drama by saying, "and one more thing."

Well, these are a few top level tips, but the article makes a good point in terms of comparing Jobs to most technology presenters. This is crucial for us technology (geeks) to understand. Not many of our   C U S T O M E R S   want to know that inside the box is a chip with software and
wires with display and buttons with insulation... you get the point. The same applies to the very technical of presentations. Even (or I should say ESPECIALLY) technical audience want to know the benefit to them. While it's nice that a new version of the software made the work for the developers easier, customers really do not care about that. But if the product's quality and reliability has been enhanced by 150% due to better software development processes, and there are 80% less bugs on the initial release, and the incremental releases are going to be faster and more predictable (the next one in in 8 weeks) -- that makes sense to customers. This speaks about Jobs' selling the "benefit" not the "bits of metal".
Now for the "bad" list. After all, we still have to watch out what NOT to do and I still see lots of bad presenters. These are my top list of not to do:

• Do NOT put them to sleep: if you can't be enthusiastic, learn how to modulate your voice, move your body and hands, illustrate and point to the presentation, give short demos, etc.
• Do NOT assume that they know: Explain basic terms, diagram processes, illustrate construction (circuits, flow charts)
• Do NOT talk in generalities: Show demos, mock-ups, screen shots, output displays,
• Don't talk about "strategy" to operational techies, don't show screen shots to strategic managers: tailor presentations or parts of them
• Don't try to fake your way: don't be "a friend" if that is not you, don't be "the expert" if you are not: be yourself, be honest

Well, I think this is a start. Remember, there are many places today to find help on how to present, blogs with presentation articles, lots of books -- but the most important part if how you present yourself and how well you prepared the presentation. This is what was said about Steve Jobs as well. This includes the actual material but also your own ability to speak and feel confident in the material and your knowledge. The one thing that the Steve Jobs situation shows the result of lots of work and preparation. Steve Jobs goes on stage after Apple has done the work and has made a magnificent product. You may think that this puts you at a disadvantage. Maybe you don't see all the work that goes into your company's product. I would suggest that you do your homework and learn about how your product was designed, developed, tested, and packaged. Maybe even how it is supported and how customers are trained. Everything you do should prepare you to give a good presentation. And don't forget, test yourself in front of internal people or a few willing customers. This is the best way to really practice. Nothing is like the real thing, but standing up in front of people and giving the presentation over and over again is a good way to test yourself. OK, as they say... NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!     G O O D     L U C K !

Presentations from tech-marketers: improve, recycle, learn

Last post I noted a few things to make presentations easier to follow. There is one additional area which could help technologists create better presentations, simply improve on what is out there. The first step is improve your own creation. If you are a programmer you know that all new programs can use improvement, testing, user feedback, benchmarking with competing programs... you get the point: I M P R O V E M E N T. That goes without saying for hardware designs. No hardware designer will ever say that the first version of a product is "perfect". The same goes for any communication and especially of the technical nature. The early life of a technical presentation needs exposure and feedback. This is specially important if you are going to introduce a new concept or claim something unique. The main reason for testing and feedback is to see what was understood. New concepts are specially difficult to explain unless they are very simple. Most of our technology is not that simple to others. We live and breath it all they long so we need to think in terms of people who do not. Even if you are trying to show an improvement in a known parameter like speed, power, or size or a program or a device. Just showing the "before" and "after" is not enough, because most people want to see the "how" and "why" and simply will not believe you if you say: "trust me". So you need to explain how the technology improved or changed the current way of doing things. This is where the questions pop out, but not to worry, here is where you can start diving into the technical details and make your point. This is where you need to create a good way to communicate; and improve, test, get feedback - and loop back!

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Metcalf's patent flow chart for Ethernet

      The improvement of presentation is a good step for anyone and helps in getting you to present better. There are two areas which help a great deal in this area. The first is the use of other people's material. You may thing that this is a terrible piece of advice. For example, the flow chart I used here came from Robert Metcalf's original Ethernet patent (4,063,220). Patents are not read by many people, but by their very nature they are a good explanation of a technology or a basic technique. Trade publication papers, industry standard specifications, and academic publications are in a similar category. These are public domain documents, but more important they tend to become an industry reference. Even if most people don't read standard specs and patents, they are known and trusted as legitimate sources. The use of these "virtual standard" documents is not very popular and not always makes sense, but it does help when you want to build on top of a know concept.

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Pentium Pro TAP processor, a small piece of technology in a big product. Intel (c) 1997
      Another useful source is industry standard documents. If you are writing about computer architecture there is nothing wrong with using Intel's specification or presentation on the Pentium. If you are a competitor you may thing that this may cause a problem, or that it shows that you are not original and that you need to "do your own work". Well, in our world most of the work is evolutionary. We improve, support, and integrate on top of what was done before. Even though most people are not familiar with the previous work you don't need to ignore it "at all cost". In each technology there are many old presentations, papers, and references. Again, even if you are the competing product you can still make use of this material. I do not advise you to copy every single presentation or manual from Cisco or Intel. But there is plenty of material that is considered industry standard by default. In the case of the figure I used from Intel, the TAP processor is a test function. You could find it in many places including the original standard specification (take a look at the IEEE resources). In this case the TAP processor is not a significant technology component in the Pentium product. But if you are going to talk about testing of integrated circuits it is useful. Make sure you ask for permission if you are using an important component of some one's publication. If you were to use Intel's main architecture drawings or flow diagrams you probably need to see if they will give you publication rights. In most cases if you are using the "core" technology they will probably not give you the rights, so be careful. As it is, you should probably do your own work when it comes to the "core" ideas.
      Well, this is another installment in our journey... stayed tuned to the giving of the presentation, or how not to put everyone to sleep on a fine sunny afternoon...

Practical tips for creating a presentation: keep in mind

Editor's note: Why is a Web2.0 blogger writes about old fashion presentations? Because developing a message, a flow to present it, and strategy to convince, and a good presentation is crucial to any manager. If you can't do it with Power-Point slided you are not going to be very good with a blog, a wiki, a newsletter, or a site.

In the last article I described technical presentations made by field engineers. It is often seen that technical people give not so good presentations while less technical people, usually in marketing and business area give good ones. Why is that? After all the technical people know the "product", the "technology" and it's use (application). They can usually "run the machine"! But the emphases on good presentation: creation and delivery; is not there. It should be any technical presenter goal to give an   E X C E L L E N T   presentation. No ifs, ors, or buts. If you are finally going to get someone in a chair, and he is going to listen to you, you better leave an impression on him. Otherwise, you better go back to writing, debugging, and running programs. Just like learning to program you can learn to create a good presentation. Just like learning to run a program you can learn to deliver a good presentation. Just like learning how to support a user in trouble you can learn how to ask a question in a crowd and get a good answer. But all of this takes preparation and practice. Just like writing a program and debugging, it takes lots of preparation and trials to get this right.

Here are a few examples in recent presentations which could be improved. When we look at someone else failing it helps us learn to do better ourselves. With presentation this is one of the best way to learn. Don't worry about hurting someone else's feelings, they will do the same to you some day.

Slides:

• Slide that does not make sense from one to the other. Links to the previous slides are confusing.


• Slide that does not support the main subject or even distracts the audience from the key subject.


• Slide that is not unique and duplicate the content from the previous or another slide.


• A slide which is not clear or is confusing and the presenter does not explain.


• Slide that explains something obvious or very simple. Fundamental knowledge should be assumed.

The complete presentation:

• Topic is not relevant to the audience or not clearly defined. (subject)


• Flow is interrupted, the presentation is made up of many segments without smooth progression. (flow)


• No main point is made, the presentation is made up of many parts with not one being a key point. (subject)


• Not enough supporting points for the “problem” or the “issue”. (detail)


• No clear “solution” or “proposal” - the presentation is not strong in the “convincing argument”. (convince)

The way a presentation is given:

• Speaker is boring and seem uninterested. (well, I will not go into this...)


• Speaker is not interested in the audience. (you guys have never seen this before?)


• Speaker is not knowledgeable and can not give clear explanations.


• Speaker is not credible, it seems like he can not “talk the talk, and walk the walk”.


• Presentation does not keep the audience's attention – no flow, no excitement, and no POINT!

A list which to “keep in mind” while creating the presentation:

• Make a list of the following items:
  
  1. Key topic of the presentation (ex. Computer security is a problem in the Internet age).
  
  
  2. Key issue you are making (ex. Most IT managers do not know the severity of the problem).
  
  
  3. Key point you are making (ex. We have a product that can help you with this).
  
  
  4. Progression or flow (ex. Start with a problem/s, show how to detect, show how to fix).
  
  
  5. Specific points and issues (ex. New clever attacks, complex networks, fast spread, etc.)
  
  
  6. How I can help (ex. I am an expert with this technology, listen to me and I can help).
  
  
  7. What you can do (before you believe me, go to these web sites, read this, etc.)
  
  
• When creating the slide content:
  1. a)How is the slide supporting the key issue, solution, or examples?
  
  
  2. Make each slide cover a point, do not overwhelm the reader: F O C U S !
  
  
  3. Keep the flow, look back one, two, even three slides – set up for the next one.
  
  
  4. Make one of few points: state an issue, show a solution, make a point – but just O N E !
  
  
  5. Get the audience involved: build in a question, ask for a comment, show a real example.
  
  
  6. Go through your own list (the ones at the top) and review possible “failures”.
  
  

Checklists and tip pages are very helpful to keep you on track. Making a presentation powerful and useful to the audience is just the first step. In the world of Web2.0 you don't have a physical audience, so these basic techniques are even more important. If you can't get you message across effectively in a Power-Point presentation, than it is going to be even more difficult in a blog. While blogs, wikis, newsletters, and single web pages have many advantages, the content quality and how it fits with the rest of the information is crucial. For these who have not developed a wiki content, starting out with a good presentation is one simple technique. Taking a big presentation and cutting it up to a few blog articles with more explanations is one way to start.

Next time: how to improve, recycle, learn from others, and just keep on going when the road is rough and bumpy.

Next-Next: how to give a presentation that is not boring - what NOT to say!

Next-Next-Next time: how to convert a presentation to a few articles. (or maybe, how to structure a series of articles in a blog, newsletter, or a site section... or...)

Teach field engineers to present, work on your presentation

Yesterday I attended another presentation by a distributor turned security ISV. The application market is hot with new products and what is reportedly new needs. I will go into the market situation in another article, this is an interesting situation which will remind us of the hype waves we are all so familiar with.

The interesting thing about company's product presentation is how the audience can tell you a great deal. How how your message came across, how clear is the presentation, how believable and credible the presenter, and finally what the overall impression. There are many aspects of a presentation which will get a certain message across and you can control. Some are easily developed or learned, some are more personality or environment related and we simply can't control. Either way, it will be helpful to any marketer to be aware of these and work on them. If you leave these to chance the result is certain to not be good. Maybe like the presentation I seen yesterday it could turn out to hurt your image.

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Good technical presentation ability is crucial for marketing success

Let's start by 'mapping' qualitative audience parameters (message, clarity, believability, etc.) to marketer's activities. I will start with a short list of audience measures. You can have your own, which probably fit your situation better.

• Message: audience should be able to understand one or two main issues.
• Clarity: the presentation should be clear to anyone, explain if you are not sure.
• Authority: are you (presenter, company, product) have authority to say and convince listeners?
• Bottom line: what should the audience do with the presentation? (usually call you)
• Information: new or useful information that the audience can use.
• Personal & Individual: how is this presentation relevant to me (examples).

This is a short list but even in instances where the presentation is very specific or technical you can easily expand or modify any of these categories. Let's first look at the actual marketing activities and see if we need a different list. If you are going to create a presentation and present it break down the task into smaller activities.

• Define all the parameters: message, audience, forum, desired outcome, outside needs, and other specific issues.
• Gather all the information and research specific items.
• Speak with everyone who will be involved in the presentation (or has interest in the outcome)
• Outline and sketch the presentation
• Create the presentation - Rev 1
• Test present to everyone who is interested, get feedback.
• Revise or create a new presentation
• Present again to everyone who is interested, loop through the revision cycle if needed
• Present to a trial crowd, should be 2 to 3 small groups
• You are done: get the presentation out and make the main presentation

This process may seem a little tedious, in some cases you may do most of the steps together showing the work to people while you are developing material. Sometimes you may present to 'outside' groups even before the presentation is complete. But overall flow here is what I see with most presenters. I would say that most technology marketers make the mistake of not testing with 'everybody' enough. For the most part I also see that most presenters do not cover enough basic issues, which is the next list. An issue or 'keep in mind' list is helpful while you are doing your work, similar to what the first list - what the audience sees it will have the qualities you need in your activities. But for that, you will have to wait for the next article.

Ask your customers face to face, when you have them! or they will not tell you!!

One of the key role in technology marketing is customer communication. This seems like a role which no other group in the organization would take as much serious responsibility as the marketing group. I think that this is true even when it comes to the sales organization and P/R group. I would suggest that you look at all the opportunities of talking with customers and potential customers and take full advantage of them. In this article I will cover face to face group meetings like seminars, trade shows, and even direct presentations in customer site.

When you have events like seminars, industry trade shows, and even participate in a customer meeting, make sure you ask them what they think. I would suggest making this a formal process with a printed questionnaire, contact info, and even a prize or a give-away. In a recent full day seminar for a big software ISV/OEM the organizers gave each participant questionnaires to fill. When the forms were turned in you received an MP3 player (similar to an Apple shuffle). This was a nice way (or trick?) to get people to fill a form, I think that essentially you got a name, phone number, and an e-Mail address. Any specific information on what someone needs is probably not going to be too deep. Without real face to face interviews the whole organization, from sales all the way to engineering is loosing a opportunity to understand customers.

There is no substitution for face to face conversation.

In a case of a large seminar or a trade show I would suggest marketing and sales people AND managers to pull off customers and potential customers one or two at a time and have a private conversation. This is perfectly acceptable during the formal 'presentations' and in the breaks for coffee or even lunch. Face to face interviews over specific topics such as: use, problems, additional needed functions and features, training, cost of operation and maintenance, and a host of other issues tend to be company specific. They may even be department and individual specific. So each person you speak with will be much more comfortable speaking in private. Most people will not tell you in writing that your product is too hard to learn or use. Which leads this person (let's assume a system administrator) not tell his boss that there are things he can do better and eventually will help users (but it will take time to learn, try, test, and implement). You get the point; and you clearly know that in face to face conversations a developer and marketer of complex products can negotiate the complex process of improving and selling this product. Fortunately, there are still many face to face opportunities to interview real people about real issues and real opportunities!

Most marketing professionals tend to look at aggregate customers and try to form an opinion based on one uniform market segment. But this is not always easy and in some respects needs to be done in depth and with a real individual customers. Going to customers directly when they are in front of you seems to be one of the best way to gather information and truly understand what customers need.

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Next time: What do you ask? and HOW?