Technical Presentation Skills For Dummies
Introduction
Earlier this week, I gave my first external presentation ever as a member of the professional working force at Data Teams Summit. I know everyone here has given a presentation at some point, but it’s always important to reflect on how to approach a presentation so that you leave a lasting impression.
Storytime
Just like an essay or even a blog post like this for that matter, your presentation should in essence be telling a story. The introduction should describe the problem statement that you’re going to be covering, while the middle will walk through the brainstorming and the ultimate solution. The conclusion should summarize the overall impact while also suggesting areas of improvement with any next steps that still need to be taken.
By thinking about your presentation as a story, you can more easily organize your message (and the accompanying slides you’ll be putting together as well). It’s always a challenge to drive home key points if the presentation itself is not well-structured.
Less Is More
I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard this in school before, but don’t just read off your PowerPoint when it comes to presenting. In fact, your slides should be rather minimal in text except for key points, as you don’t want your audience to get too fixated on reading everything off the slides since they should be focused on listening to your content instead.
I used to be a habitual offender of this in the past and it certainly isn’t an easy habit to break at first. Now, I just prefer to keep slides brief and I generally use diagrams (or clip art if it’s more fitting) to give my slides a more full appearance (my OCD can’t bear to see tons of whitespace sometimes). I’ve found this to work a lot better in the long run when it comes to captivating the audience.
Know Your Audience
Presentations, especially technical ones, should be geared towards your audience. There’s a big difference in the reception you’d get when talking about Databricks and EMR in front of a group of product users vs. a group of fellow developers. You never want to overwhelm your audience, so it’s critical to stay on or close to their “level” throughout the presentation.
This is something I’ve gotten a better grasp on from all the work I do as a team lead. When doing our monthly office hour slides with stakeholders and data consumers, I try to keep the presentation more focused on key points and only dive more into the technical side when needed or when asked in Q&A. But when it comes to our internal team KTs, I’ll go with a way more technical approach because I know who I’m working with.
Practice Makes Perfect?
No, the question mark isn’t a typo. Back in my school days, I would rehearse presentations before actually giving them, and I never felt like those went over well. Why? Since I’d basically have my whole dialogue in the back of my head, I’d sound monotonic and my tempo would be way off as a result. You never want to come off too stiff when you’re presenting.
I now generally “wing” my presentations, and I’ve felt that goes a lot better. I’m not winging them in the sense that I didn’t prepare at all and am just bluffing the entire way, but I haven’t formally rehearsed a presentation in a long time. By focusing on the slides (even sometimes including notes so that I remember what to mention for later), I’ll have the story crafted in my head, and go with that when it’s time to present.
Conclusion
I’m sure most of these were self-explanatory, but it’s always a good refresher to go over proper presentation skills. I used to always be nervous when giving presentations and now I feel a lot more composed, no matter the size or composition of the audience. Hopefully, this helps you accomplish the same if you struggle with presentations like I did.
