Questions to Get You Started
There are three basic questions you need to ask — and answer — as you’re preparing any presentation:
- Huh? What are you talking about? (It’s surprising how many people can’t clearly define their main idea.)
- So what? Why should the audience care about what you’re talking about? How does it affect them?
- What next? What do you want the audience to do with what you’re presenting?
Here are some other questions to get your creative juices flowing:
What one thing does your audience need to know more than anything else?
It’s your job to prioritize the information you’re presenting. Of all that you know and that you’d like to communicate, what is essential? (Simply saying, “It’s all essential,” means you’re abdicating your responsibility as a presenter.) What is the one thing you want your audience to understand and remember? What other ideas or information support that one idea? What other material is interesting but non-essential?
What surprised you while you were investigating or thinking about this idea?
Surprise is best way to capture people’s attention and to drive away boredom (your own and other people’s). What did you find that you didn’t expect to find? What will cause your audience to say “aha”?
Is there an anecdote or a metaphor that captures the essence of the idea?
Where is the conflict?
Conflict implies tension and tension creates suspense, which is the antidote to boredom, which is the death knell of any idea. Don’t gloss over or ignore conflict. Seek it out and heighten it. Does your idea pit the marketing department against R&D? Does it go against what’s always been done? Does it make your audience uneasy? Great. Make people feel the conflict. Then resolve it.
Can you put a face of this idea?
One of the best ways of making an idea both clear and interesting is to show how it affects people. So don’t just talk about ideas (or products or services or processes). Talk about people or, better, about a particular person who is involved with or affected by the idea. Tell that person’s story.
Does a quote summarize the idea?
What re the (three to five) basic elements of this idea and how do they connect?
What is the shape of the idea?
Ideas sometimes have a natural shape to them. Once you find that shape, you can form your presentation around it. Can you depict your idea in a flow chart? Concentric circles? Stair case? Twisting path? Pyramid?
What is your point of view?
Look at your idea from someone else’s point of view. Put yourself in the skin of the customer or of the person who is going to implement the idea or of the person who stands to lose the most if the idea is adopted.
What problem needs to be solved? What are its causes? How has it been addressed in the past?
What is the history of the idea?
Ideas don’t miraculously spring out of nothingness. They have a history. Some event led to some other event that led to some other event. (Most people are so ignorant of history these days that you’ll surprise them simply by showing its relevance.)
What is the idea’s central event?
Again, these questions are meant to get you thinking when you’re in the preparation phase. You don’t have to address them in your presentation, but considering them may help you create something that is smarter and more interesting than your audience is expecting.