Text guides

Presentations and talks

Build a talk around what listeners need to understand or do. Use real evidence, leave room for questions and plan the available time.

12 practical tasks. Each guide includes a sample request and a way to check the answer.

Find the main point of a presentationFinish this sentence before opening slide software: after the talk, listeners should believe or do this. Choose the answer by looking at what the audience needs, then keep only the evidence that supports it. Everything else is a candidate for removal or for a separate session.
Fit a talk into ten minutesTen minutes holds less than most drafts assume. Assign a duration to each section first, including the opening, transitions and closing, then fill each section to fit. Decide in advance what you would drop if you run long, so the cut is planned and not improvised.
Outline slides from evidence rather than headingsStart from the evidence you have, not from a list of topic headings. Each slide should state one claim, show the data or example that supports it and carry a sentence you will say aloud. A slide with a title but no proof is a placeholder, so mark it as one.
Explain a chart accurately in speaker notesSay what is measured and in what units, state the one comparison the chart supports, then name what it cannot show. Keep description and interpretation apart in your notes. A pattern on a chart is an observation, and a cause is a separate claim that needs its own support.
Adapt a presentation for listeners with different backgroundsPick the few terms your argument cannot work without and define each in a sentence or less, with an example. Put extra depth in an optional layer, such as a backup slide or a prepared answer, so newer listeners are not lost and experienced ones are not stalled.
Draft a conference proposal from work you can discussBase the proposal on work you can discuss in detail and show evidence for. State who the session is for, what problem it addresses, what listeners will be able to do afterward and how the time will be spent. Keep claims of novelty or success within what the work shows.
Prepare questions for a panel discussionStart from what each panelist has said they can speak to. Give every topic one opening question and one follow-up, and order the topics so each answer builds on the last. Keep a few spare questions for the audience, and drop any that two speakers would answer the same way.
Check a pitch for claims the evidence supportsList each claim in the pitch and write down the evidence behind it. Where the evidence is thin, narrow the wording to what you can show. Phrase forecasts as forecasts and get permission before naming a customer. Then note the questions the audience is likely to ask.
Prepare a backup when a live demo may failBreak the demo into steps, mark where each could fail, and decide in advance what replaces it. A recording, screenshots or a described example can all work if the audience is told what they are seeing. Write the sentence you will say when you switch.
Write a speaker introduction with relevant detailsAn introduction tells the audience why this speaker is here to talk about this topic, then steps aside. Choose two or three details that bear on the talk, confirm each with the speaker or a record you can cite, and finish with a sentence that hands over the floor.
Make a handout participants can use after a workshopA participant should be able to repeat the exercise a week later with only the handout. State the goal, number the steps, leave room for answers and label any example as an example. Close with one next action and a way to reach the facilitator.
Create a focused feedback sheet for a rehearsalTell reviewers what to watch before you start, then give them a few questions tied to parts of the talk. Ask for the moment they felt lost, the claim they doubted and one thing they would cut. Examples they can point to are more useful than overall impressions.

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