Three Questions to Ask in Presenting Technical Information
When you’re presenting a lot of technical information, you owe your audience three things:
- Explanation: What does your information mean? The facts don’t speak for themselves. It’s your responsibility to study and evaluate them, and to come to some understanding of what they mean. And then it’s job to help your audience understand them.
State your thesis or your conclusion up front. If you set out fact after fact after fact, thinking you’re building your case, you’ll lose your audience’s attention. Begin, instead, by stating the meaning of the facts and then present the facts.
- Evaluation: What is the value, the significance, or the import of the matter you’re discussing? Why should the audience — or should the audience — care about it? Is it — whatever it is (a trend, a new market, a product idea, etc.) — a good thing or a bad thing? A threat or an opportunity or a blessing in disguise? A matter of urgency or something that can be considered later? How does it rate in comparison to other matters?
What’s at stake in making an evaluation is your judgment — your professional opinion based on experience, knowledge, and careful consideration. Many presenters, especially technical presenters, are hesitant to offer their judgments. (They seem to think that doing so might compromise their objectivity.) But I think you owe your audience the benefit of your judgment.
- Recommendation: What do you recommend doing with the matter you’re discussing? In business at least, knowledge isn’t an end unto itself. Knowledge informs — or should inform — action. After you’ve understood and evaluated the information at hand, what do you think should be done about or with it?
If you’re presenting to people who have the authority to make the final decision, you may want to offer a couple of recommendations (no more than three). But you should be prepared and willing to weigh in on which option you think is best.
Answer these three questions – 1. What does it mean? 2. Why should we care? and 3. What should we do? — and your audience will thank you for it.
Do you agree or disagree?
March 22nd, 2011 at 7:36 pm
I agree very strongly with this framework Chris.
Re-enacting your analysis and leaving your conclusions to the end is what Steve Ballmer calls “the long and winding road” approach, and executives hate that. They get impatient by slide 3 and start interrupting with questions. So, in business presentations, put your conclusions up front.
Also agree very strongly with highlighting what’s a stake. At Microsoft, I used to receive requests from around the world for, for example, $20,000 to help with a local campaign. But they didn’t say what was at stake if they didn’t get the funds so it was easy for me to reject their proposal. Highlighting what’s at stake will help sell ideas during a business presentation.
Lead with these two items and you are likely to spark a natural conversation, rather than a presentation.
March 25th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Bruce,
Thanks for your comments.
I’m loving your book. It’s one of the best treatments I’ve read on PowerPoint. When I have more time, I’ll post a review of it. Kudos in a big way.
March 26th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
[...] to everything you write: PowerPoint decks, business reports, email and blogs. Chris Witt recently posted a blog article that summarizes some of the same key [...]
May 16th, 2011 at 7:07 am
I heard once “to be more interesting, be more relevant”. Don’t try to make the data have more impact, work hard to connect the data to the real challenges facing the people in the audience.
May 16th, 2011 at 11:53 am
Hi Chris, I agree completely with your 3 key ideas, but I think I would put the most emphasis on the specific actions that can or should be taken as a result of the new information provided by the presenter and the presentation. For most execs, their primary job is to make decisions, so all they want is enough information to make a good decision. After they’ve got enough new info to make a decision, anything else you tell or show them, no matter how interesting, will be considered a waste of time. I’ve found that if I ask myself, “What decision are they trying to make by using my info and exactly what parts of my info do they need to make a good decision?”, then I can cut down on my presentation content quite a bit. I’ve also found it very helpful to study excellent decision-making processes so I can figure out how to help my audience make decisions based on what I’m presenting. I highly recommend “Decision Traps” by Russo and Shoemaker as the best book I’ve read on the subject. Art Fox
May 17th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
I’ve always preferred the even more blunt version of the three questions – roughly translated as “so what ; who cares and says who?”
May 19th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Art, I agree with you: the emphasis is always on action, on enabling people to do something in response to what you’re presenting. Simply giving people — especially busy decision makers — information is a waste of their time, their attention, and their goodwill. I’ll check out the book you recommend.
John, my blunt version is What? (what do you want me to do?), Why? (Why should I do it? What’s the benefit of doing it?), and How? (How do I do it?). I always love the “so what?” question.