How can you ensure your data presentations meet customer needs?

Begin with the customer's desired business outcomes and the metrics tied to these outcomes to ensure that your presentations are customer centric. Use a collaborative approach to develop content. Ensure the customer’s key stakeholders provide input on content. For many of my presentations, I actually have the customer develop the content along with my company's account team. This ensures two things, first, that the content aligns with my customer’s KPIs and second, that all parties are accountable because they own the content creation process. Lastly, include dashboards and reports that provides C-suite level data that is relevant and timely.

Identify Your Audience: Clearly define the characteristics and interests of your audience. This includes their demographics (age, gender, occupation, education level), their role in the organization, their level of expertise in the topic, and their decision-making authority. Conduct Audience Research: Gather information about your audience through surveys, interviews, or market research. This will help you gain insights into their needs, preferences, priorities, and potential concerns related to the presentation topic. Consider Their Perspective: Adopt your audience's perspective and consider how they would perceive the data, information, and insights you want to convey.

Identify the core message: Determine the central idea or key takeaway you want your audience to gain from the presentation. Consider your audience: Understand your audience's needs, expectations, and level of understanding of the topic. Set clear objectives: Establish specific and measurable goals for your presentation. What do you want your audience to know, do, or believe after attending your presentation? Align with the context: Ensure your presentation purpose aligns with the overall context of the event or meeting. Consider the theme, objectives, and expectations of the gathering. Craft a concise statement: Articulate your presentation purpose in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. It should be easy to understand and remember.

The best presentation format depends on the purpose, audience, information type, and available resources. Consider using traditional slides, storytelling, humor, interactive elements, multimedia, and data visualization. Tailor the format to the audience's background knowledge and preferences. Choose a format that effectively conveys the type of information being presented. Consider the available resources, such as time, budget, and technical expertise.

I've generally found a mix is best when presenting data. A dashboard is incredibly useful to involve your audience and tie the presented data to their department or function but slides are often needed to explain what the dashboard is displaying, what data has been used to create it and why the results are important to the discussed scenario.

Designing an effective presentation involves understanding the audience, crafting a clear message, and using visuals strategically. Identify the audience's needs, interests, and expectations. Begin with a compelling hook to capture attention. Structure the presentation logically with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. Use visuals to enhance understanding, not distract. Choose visuals that are relevant, high-quality, and easy to view. Maintain consistency in font style, color scheme, and slide layout.

It can be nerve wracking addressing an audience and there is always a tenancy to accelerate your speech. Try to avoid this, keep things slow and measured. It will help you to formulate the words you're saying and will allow the audience to absorb your message easier. As the article seems keen to highlight, don't skimp on the storytelling!

To articulate is an art! Delivering an impactful presentation requires confidence, practice, and engagement. Convey confidence through posture, eye contact, and a clear voice. Practice beforehand to ensure smooth delivery and timing. Engage the audience by asking questions, using storytelling, and incorporating interactive elements. Speak at a moderate pace and enunciate clearly. Project your voice to the back of the room. Use natural hand gestures and avoid distracting mannerisms. Dress appropriately for the audience and occasion. Arrive early to set up and practice. Anticipate potential questions and prepare thoughtful responses.

Data doesn’t change minds, stories do. So be compelling when you deliver the presentation! 1. Clearly articulate your key findings, using straightforward language and visuals. Ensure that complex data is presented in a way that is easily digestible for your audience, emphasizing the most relevant insights. 2. Storytelling with Data: Weave a narrative around your results to engage your audience. Create a logical flow, connecting data points to tell a compelling story. People connect with stories, making your presentation more memorable and impactful.

When you end your presentation, I've found that a succinct, *visually compelling* one-pager summarizing the problem statement/purpose, salient points, and critical takeaways for action assists in crystallizing understanding. If in person, have these printed to share at the end and offer a link to an electronic version. In many ways, you're marketing to the audience, so anything of a material nature where you need collective buy-in should be polished and anticipate needs beyond the presentation. Save your audience time searching a deck for a missed reference point, as all the key insights have been highlighted and consolidated in advance for them, but only after the presentation has aligned the contextual setting.