Tips for User Experience Research Presentations
In a previous writing, I shared tips for how to be a better audience member. I started there because quite frankly we’ll spend more of our time being audience members than presenters and there is little information out there on how to be a good audience member. But I’d be remiss without sharing the other side which we all struggle with: presenting.
A few years ago, my manager asked me to think about how to improve the presentation quality of the UX research team. She enjoyed my presentations and wanted my presentation style to rub off on others on the team. At first I felt a little bit out of sorts because I’ve never really considered myself a good presenter or, more accurately, I have always been a bit self-conscious presenting. However, as I reflected further, I realized that it was this self-conscious feeling that made me more aware over the years on my presentation style and developed me into a better presenter. So I forged ahead thinking of what I have learned over the years and developed a curriculum of presentation best practices specifically for researchers. I supplemented my thinking by reading two presentation books recommended by UX peers: “Show and Tell” by Dan Roam and “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds.
I thought I would share a taste of what came out of that curriculum. There are a lot of great and more robust resources, such as the books I just mentioned, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. Just some of my top tips and advice specifically relevant to User Experience Research presentations.
Tell a story
Storytelling makes ideas more memorable
In both “See what I mean” and “Presentation Zen” the authors stress using storytelling to convey your points. The rationale is that storytelling makes ideas more memorable. In User Experience Research presentations storytelling helps to bring emotion and customer empathy which further connects the stakeholders to their customers.
Storytelling can mean many things. There is the high level of arrangement of your presentation narrative such that it tells a cohesive story and not just a barrage of slides. But there is also the simple act of using actual stories to convey a point, which is how I find myself using storytelling effectively. As I described in a previous writing, I try as much as possible to intersperse my presentations with participant stories. I take a pause from the presentation to tell a story of a user that highlights a key insight I want to stress. Not only does it bring stakeholders closer to the user and make the insights more memorable, it also helps to illustrate an insight.
As a User Experience Researcher, I am blessed with access to lots of great stories at my fingertips. It would be a shame to not use and share them.
Create a presentation and written version
Researchers struggle to make a great presentation or a great written report. I just create both.
Every presentation book or class I’ve ever taken always preaches the same theme: less is more. Less slides, less bullets, less words — less.
However, in User Experience Research there is a conflict. When you create a presentation deck it must dually serve the purpose as something to be presented as well as read later. There is a conflict here because as we’re taught in presentation classes we don’t want our audience to read the slides, but rather listen to us the presenters. But for a written report those details need to be described and written down. So this leads to conflict as researchers struggle to make a great presentation or a great written report. Should they try walking a tightrope creating something in between? What’s a researcher to do?
I just create both and avoid the conflict. It surprisingly doesn’t take much more extra time for me. I first create a written report meant to be read either in the near future or archived for future inspiration. When it comes time to present, I prune it down to a lighter version — speaking towards those details I’ve just removed. When I present, I print out my written version as a guide which I have on hand when I present. Printing may be old fashion, but paper is an elegant “2nd screen”.
Just remember that “less is more” applies to your written version as well and taking this approach doesn’t leave room to dump everything into the written report.
Triangulate data
Simple triangulation can go a long way in strengthening your insights
Academic research constantly builds off one another. You’ll never find a journal article without dozens of references. For some reason, this gets lost when it comes to research conducted in industries such as User Experience Research. Perhaps it’s the fast-paced nature of research, the desire to have a simple message, or just the lack of prior research given the specificity of the project.
Whatever the reason, I’ve found my message to be more effective when I’ve been able to reference related research as much as I can. First, it helps me tell a much richer story of our users by tying the threads of multiple insights. This is especially true when I have been able to mix quantitative data and qualitative data together as they dance beautifully together by answering the questions of both how and why. Second triangulating data helps bring creditability to the insights. For better or worse, I’ve noticed that people tend to find your story more credible when they see multiple studies referenced.
The beauty of this is that it does not need to be heavy-handed. While I’ve created very thorough synthesis reports which triangulate multiple research projects together, the concept of triangulating data can be impactful in the simplest forms. I’ve found that simply referencing other research as a footnote, presenting a supporting graph for an insight, or even just verbally saying, “We’ve heard similar insights before……” can be impactful. Simplicity in a presentation is still important and simple triangulation can go a long way in strengthening your insights.
Focus on time management
There is the delicate moderation of allowing conversations to happen, but also making sure there is time to get through all the insights.
The consistent feedback that I’ve been given and had to work on is managing my presentation time. It seems I’m always at odds with trying to get through content at a pace that allows me to avoid rushing through insights at the end. I’m certain this is true for lots of types of presentations, but this is especially true for User Experience Research presentations because interesting insights seed interesting conversation. If I am truly embracing my influencing role I need to hear my stakeholders’ interpretations and begin the discussion on what to do with this data. This takes time. So there is the delicate moderation of allowing conversations to happen, but also making sure there is time to get through all the insights.
I admit haven’t mastered this and it is still a struggle. The best thing that I’ve found is to first plan conversations as part of the presentation. I usually plan a third of my time for conversations. If I have 1 hour, I plan for 20 minutes of conversations and 40 minutes of presenting. To do this I need to prioritize. I prioritize first what to keep in the presentation based on which insights I really want to focus on. And among those insights, I think about what the key takeaways are and where I expect to have the most conversation or controversy. I keep an eye on the clock at all times and cut out insights on the fly. Better to discuss these additional insights later than to rush through and have the insights not come across clearly in the moment.
Credible, Curious, and Conversational
Different presentations contexts require different tones and styles. When I reflect on the style I’m aiming for in research presentations, it would come down to three C’s.
1. Credible: First and foremost, you want an audience to believe your research. While credibility is built in many ways, when it comes to presentation style I’ve found credibility is achieved by making myself come across as unbiased as possible. I’ve noticed that people are naturally on guard when they feel someone is “selling” something to them. And there is a place and time for salesmanship within a presentation, but for the most part I don’t think a research presentation is the place. When the focus is on data and insights, I want to disconnect myself from the data as much as possible — the data is what it is without my bias determining it. Of course, I have my expert interpretation when discussing the next steps/recommendations which is where salesmanship comes in. But when talking about data, as part of my influencing role, I want to make my stakeholders feel like this is our research, not my research.
2. Curious: If you are not a salesman, then how do you add energy and enthusiasm? For me, I generate enthusiasm from my curiosity. I’m a naturally curious person and curiosity is core to research. Curiosity is also infectious. Stand in a crowd of strangers, look up, and say “isn’t that fascinating”. I bet you’ll spark several strangers’ interest who can’t help but look up. Using a curious tone not only grabs attention but focuses that energy on the insights.
3. Conversational: I try my best to aim for making the presentation feel as much as possible like a conversation rather than a presentation. This is not always easy, and the best approach I’ve found is a mindset shift. I try to put myself in the mind space that I’m leading a discussion and not necessarily presenting, shifting the context around in my head and letting my tone and style follow. And if this mental jujitsu doesn’t work, simply leaving time for questions and literally having a conversation helps to achieve a conversational tone.
I realize that reading about tone/style is difficult– you really have to see it in action. So here is an analogy that spoke to me from “Show and Tell”. As Dan Roam wrote that “report” presentations are the most frequent presentations and yet they are also the most likely to fail. Why? As he put it, they usually just present the facts with little surprise, drama, and hence are not very memorable. The analogy he gave was to imagine watching a sports game with no ticking clock, half time, no surprises — just the facts. It wouldn’t be very memorable. Enter the announcers whose emphasis and commentary turn the facts into a lively story. This really hit home for me as the role of the “announcer” felt exactly like the kind of tone that hits on the 3 C’s and achieve the tone I am aiming for. They turn the facts into a conversation, bring enthusiasm to draw you into the action, and at the same time are not taking sides — giving them credibility in their interpretation. They’re announcers, not cheerleaders. When I think about trying to be credible, curious, and conversational in a research readout I try and channel my inner sports announcer.
Prepare for pushback
There is a delicate balance of how to deliver bad news in a way in which people will still listen and accept what you are saying.
In all presentations, there is a risk of pushback or negative response to what you are delivering. I believe the risk is even higher in UX research presentations as you are often in the position of delivering negative feedback — basically telling someone their baby is ugly. So, there is a delicate balance of how to deliver bad news in a way in which people will still listen and accept what you are saying. Here are a few tips I found helpful for User Experience Research projects specifically.
First, when stakeholders are faced with results that challenge their preexisting ideas, the first thing they often do is attack the method or project setup. To prepare for this, I usually do my best to poke holes in my own research. When I was a graduate student, I ran my thesis research project using the psychology department’s resources. As I described my project to the lead psychology professor, whom I just met, I couldn’t help vent out all the aspects which I was concerned with that could confound the study. After he patiently listened, I quickly apologized for venting, to which he replied, “No that’s good. It sounds like you’ve really thought this through. Good researchers know their project flaws.”. That really stuck with me, and now I feel comfortable deeply critiquing my research. You’re the best person to poke holes through your project, so poke away! By doing so, you’ll be prepared for those difficult questions.
Second, you’ll no doubt get questions you don’t have answer for. New insights tend to pose new questions. When this happens, I fight the urge to make a guess. I spoke toward the importance of researchers admitting “I don’t know” in a previous writing, and in the context of a presentation it goes back to credibility. If you’re just making a guess at a question, how are your stakeholders supposed to believe the insights you do know and are presenting? Of course, I do give opinions, but I always preface with there is no research to support these ideas. However, there is an exciting opportunity to get out there and learn more!
Finally, the last tip comes from my previous manager. She taught me that if I ever have a sense that research is going to be delivering news people don’t want to hear, to begin “pre-selling” before the presentation. There are lots of ways to do this, but my favorite comes in the form of starting to expose the bad news early on during the study. This is not hard because I’m always trying to bring stakeholders closer to the research. Not to mention that people are always asking for the results as early as possible. Of course, I have to be certain in the result before previewing but doing so does take a bit of the “shock” away and allows me to also get a preview of how stakeholders are taking it. It also gives stakeholders time to process the information before the larger share-out.
It’s not about you
It’s not about impressing people with the depths of my knowledge, but sharing or teaching something of lasting value.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve always been self-conscious about presenting. It seems to me that no matter how great a presenter you are or confident you seem, everyone deals with some element of anxiety when it comes to public speaking. While this applies to any presentation, the need to deliver bad news at times in User Experience Research presentations is not fun and can make anyone nervous.
The most helpful tip for myself was inspired directly from “Show and Tell”. Dan Roam ends his book by talking about how presenting is a gift. As a presenter, you are given the gift of an audience’s time and in return, the best gift you can give back is an extraordinary presentation. As he puts it, “Enjoy your idea. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy your audience. This is going to be fun.”.
For me thinking this way completely changed my approach and mentality when giving presentations. I now see presentations not about me, but about my audience and giving them insights that might change their thinking in some way. It’s not about impressing people with the depths of my knowledge, but sharing or teaching something of lasting value. When I have this mentality, I feel a little less anxious because I’m not focused on myself and how I look or sound. Instead, I’m inspired because I’m focused on others and trying my best to give them insights to help them understand their customers.
I’ve taken plenty of presentation classes over my career, and they were all helpful in one way or another. But they were also general and often in the context of a general presentation like a TED talk. And while that is helpful for setting a foundation of presentation skills, I was always looking for the nuances in specific advice for my industry or within my context of research presentations. I hope these tips provide a slice of those nuances for User Experience Research presentations.
This writing is part of a series of contemplations in User Experience Research. Check out some of the other writings.
