Anyone can make a great presentation

Whenever I used to look for advice online about making a good presentation, it always frustrated me not to find any that was actionable. It’s all very good to say that you need to create a good story, that you shouldn’t overload your slides and there should be a clear call to action. But how does one go about doing that? That was a question that never got answered. So, when I had a reached a level of mastery that people were asking me how I did it, it made me think about my process for the first time. So I created this.

I challenged myself to create a framework that provided guidance by showing my methods in the process. I opened with a bold statement: “anyone can make a great presentation…”, which catches the eye and draws you in. But then you see the caveat that accompanies the bold statement: “…you just need to put in the time and effort”. I know this might sound a bit smug, but you knew this already. There aren’t really any shortcuts in life so why would you think that this would be any different.

After this opening, we immediately get into the heart of the matter in the next slide, while a diagram of the framework. One could completely ignore the rest of the presentation if this framework diagram gave them everything they needed. But for those who seek more guidance we break down each part of the diagram in subsequent slides.

So, what is the framework trying to say?

First, we break down the process into its main parts

1. Build your story – Your work does not begin by opening a new blank ppt. Your work begins by first understanding what is the story you want to tell, the objective you are trying to achieve. I know this is the kind of advice I was railing against earlier and I promise to dig deeper soon. But I still think this is important to internalize. Sometime, the story is simple enough that it lives in your head; but at other times you will need to write down your thoughts first until a clear picture emerges.
2. Present your story – This is the part for which plenty of technical ‘how to’ advice is already available online so I instead decided to focus on the basics which will be easy for anyone to follow and make a professional looking presentation.
3. Keep practicing – If you decide to follow the framework as a one-time thing and think that it means you have achieved mastery, then this part is just a reminder that you haven’t. You will need to keep finding opportunities to practice so that you can really master the basics. Otherwise, if you decide to do this one year later, you might find that you are starting from scratch.

Then, we deep dive into each of these 3 parts

Build your story

If you are trying to create a slide deck for a monthly report and you read that you first need to build your story, you might rightly ask what the hell does that mean. I’m so glad you asked because it’s not as much of an alien concept as you might think it is.

1. You begin by just gathering your content. There will be some standard things like metrics and other data which requires almost no effort for you to put together. But then get curious about what else you could include. Ask questions of yourself and others to see what it sparks. When you find an avenue to explore, look for the numbers associated with it. That will usually indicate if it might be worth included and numbers usually make a bigger impact that words. Last but not the least, you must remember to save all your references, there’s nothing worse than making a brilliant presentation but if someone asks where you got a particular number from, you fumble because you don’t have the reference saved.
2. Now you can start to create a story using the content you have gathered. There are many ways in which you could use your data to tell a story but if you are looking for some ideas to start with, consider flow charts, trends, graphs, and timelines or journey diagrams. It could give you a good place to start and modify as you need.
3. The next step is to step back and refine. You might find gaps in your story that requires more data or you might think of more information that could refine your story so you go looking for it.

Present your story

I have created a checklist of “technical” ppt skills categorized from Level 1 to 4 based on my own experience of them. I have provided illustrations of these within the deck and I’ll break them down in more detail in future posts.

Keep practicing

In this section, I have put forward some suggestions of opportunities you can use to keep practicing.

I hope this was useful. Let me know in the comments what you think and if you have some ideas of your own about making great presentations.