How do you design and deliver virtual experiences?

Back in March, as lockdown began, I had 48 hours to convert the MBA course I teach at Oxford University into a digital format. I would have 80 students spread across time zones. At the same time, multiple live events booked for 2020 now had to be delivered via virtual platforms.

So much of what I do is about connecting with people. Reading a room and thinking about how I’d like participants to feel. The idea of doing recordings in my loft, on my own, was both frightening and unappealing.

How could I deliver something meaningful without physically being in the room?

Over the past few months, I've followed a simple rule: ‘don’t replicate but reinvent.’ In other words, I focus on reshaping the design of my content to connect with people in a virtual environment. It's been quite a learning journey.

Here are 5 key things I’ve learned about delivering presentations virtually:

1. Settling the Room & Setting the Tone

Most virtual sessions I’ve joined, whether they are internal meetings or live events have begun with some kind of uncomfortable exchange. An awkward “…can you hear me?” or a standard “How are you?” The first few minutes of any interaction are critical. Just as a comedian or musician sets the tone of their show by carefully selecting their opening joke or song, your opening remarks can capture attention, bring an audience together or deflate energy.

Think about the state you want people to be in – optimistic, candid, calm, challenged, curious. How do you want them to feel?

The desired state should inform how you design the opening. For instance, if I want people to feel challenged, I’ll start with a series of questions. “Why do some companies succeed in a crisis and why do others fail? What about companies or sectors that have lost during this time – why did this happen?...” I’m letting people know what’s coming but not through a structured agenda slide. If I want them to be curious, I’ll use two powerful but unexpected images together such as a womb and a railway train (yes, I’ve done this!) and asked people to guess the connection in a live poll.

Deliberately design the first few minutes to pull people into the right state.

2. Focus on the Presenter, not the PowerPoint

It can be tricky to control how people see your content. Presenter and PowerPoint can easily end up competing for screen-space.?You don’t really want a situation where your slides are full-bleed and you’re the tiny dot in the corner. Don’t hold back on giving participants specific instructions on how to adjust the scale of the video of you or the PowerPoint in their viewers.

It’s a whole different design approach to the stage where your slides can be your backdrop. In virtual formats, it's critical to only use slides to convey ideas and feelings that are better expressed through images versus words.

Think about when you want the audience’s attention to be solely on you and avoid sharing your screen – such as when you are introducing yourself or telling a story.

3. Pivotal Moments of Human Connection

When do you really connect with the audience? Maybe they laugh. Or perhaps, you’ve got them to see something in a different light. These are your pivotal moments. They come from a genuine human connection; when your audience can feel your passion or excitement, and you can feel your audience responding in return.

One of the hardest things about delivering in virtual environments is maintaining that human connection. Unlike live events, you can’t feel the mood of the room – the restless whispers, silent engagement or excited applause have all been muted. Sometimes, you can’t even see faces. Are they tired? Distracted? In the kitchen serving Cheerios to their kids at 6 am in the morning?

If I can see some of the audience on my screen: I pick one person and look them in the eye when landing a key point (especially if you’re answering their question.) The rest of the participants will feel you’re trying to connect directly with them.

If I can’t see anyone (which is really hard) I put a printed image of an audience on my screen to give myself a focal point. Really! I’ve shown up to give people something and directing my energy to a dark blue box on a screen with the words ‘program is in session’ is never going to work!

4. Give people permission to look away and reflect

When watching a presenter on a stage or at the front of a meeting room, we don’t normally stare fixedly into their eyeballs. Sure, we look at them, but we also look around the room, at other people, at our notebooks. I’ve noticed people will even justify why they’re looking down in virtual settings – “I’m just jotting notes.” It seems we’re frightened of looking distracted or disengaged. But this intensity of people staring is really hard on the presenter and audience. It’s great to give permission for everyone to look down or away and reflect on a key point or to jot down ideas in response to a question. Intentionally design moments that take the gaze away from you.

5. Bookend your experience

Close with the same care and thought as your opening: How do you want people to feel?

The end and the start should be like bookends - binding your ideas and the experience together. They may be different emotions. I don’t like giving people summary points of what I’ve just said or prescriptive suggestions on next steps to take. There are other ways to help inspire action. I like people to walk away asking themselves a question that will hopefully help them rethink something important in their lives.

If you’d like to dive much deeper into tips and insights, please go to ‘A Guide to Designing and Delivering Virtual Experiences’. It’s in a freely available Google Doc - I'll keep updating it as I learn more.

A QUESTION FOR YOU: What is the best virtual experience you’ve seen?

Warmly and be safe,

Rachel

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