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Agile 

Tips for Making a Presentation

There is a famous quote by President Woodrow Wilson reported in one of his biographies. When a member of the Cabinet congratulated Wilson on introducing the vogue of short speeches and asked him about the time it took him to prepare his speeches. He said:

"It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now."

The shorter the speech or presentation, the more preparation it requires. But why is that?

When you're given a short amount of time, every word, every point, and every slide must be carefully chosen. There's no room for rambling or unnecessary details, and it requires extensive preparation, because you have to prioritize what's most important and how best to communicate it in a limited time. In contrast, if you're speaking for an hour, you have the luxury of exploring your topic in greater depth, perhaps even improvising or providing more context and anecdotes. The need for precise editing and the pressure to eliminate fluff is reduced because you have more room to maneuver.

My experience

I have always been fascinated by people on the stage. May it be a stand-up comedian, a clown or a TED speaker they all have one thing in common: you think you could watch them for hours and never get bored. The opposite of a teacher showing 15 bullet points on a single slide!

During my professional career, I have always studied different presentation styles (and tools as well), watched videos, read books and I would like to share with you some useful tips, since I am sure that each and everyone of us makes presentations, may it be to show a project progress or to describe a new product.

Tips

  • Do not fill slides with too much text: slides should enhance your story, not serve as a script for you or a reading list for your audience. The general rule is no more than six words per slide.
  • Do not use bullet points: they create a static feel and encourage the audience to start reading down a list instead of listening to the speaker. If you need do show them anyway, make sure the points appear one by one, as you are speaking
  • Use animations and transitions sparingly: overusing them can make your presentation feel amateurish and distracting, they can be useful for gradually revealing complex ideas, but they should never feel gimmicky
  • Give care to data visualization: present data in a way that is visually appealing. Use bar charts, or other visual tools that simplify complex data, but avoid to show too many data
  • Practice, practice, practice: if you want to ensure a smooth, polished performance you need to practice hundreds of times
  • Your presentation is not your handout. If you need to give a handout to the audience, prepare a separate more detailed document

And remember: presentations are not about showing how much you know, they are about helping others understand what you know

Suggested resources

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