In November 2021, we (Jen and Hanne) both spoke at product management conferences in the UK. These were events taking place after the 18-month hiatus to live events due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021. Jen spoke at Turing Fest 2021 (2–4 November in Edinburgh, Scotland) and Hanne spoke at Product-Led Summit London (26 November in London, England). Here are our stories of how our personal styles differed in preparing for these events and what we learned along the way 🎉
Figuring out what you want to speak about 🗣️
Speaking on stage about a topic that you’re knowledgeable and passionate about is a great way to share what you know as well as solidify your understanding of that topic into a format that is digestible for others (if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough!). The rush of adrenaline can help bring out the best in us, by ensuring we prepare and practice our talk so that we know it inside and out. It’s a great experience to have, and one we’d recommend to almost anyone who’s looking to up-skill themselves as a leader (which has nothing to do with being an extrovert or introvert, but everything about motivating and engaging with those around you).
However, in order to speak on stage, you need something to speak about! It’s best to speak about something that you’ve had a personal experience with and can give your own take on — especially something that maybe didn’t always go so well, meaning you and your team learned a lot in the process! These are usually gems to share with an audience of your peers that might be going through something similar themselves and your story and top-tips might help them through it.
Once you have a couple of ideas, draft out a few different talk outlines with a concise summary of the main takeaways you’d want an audience to have from your presentation. Send these to colleagues or friends for feedback, and ask them which they think seem most exciting.
Polish a couple of these outlines to a point where you feel proud of them, but not so fixed that you can’t adjust it based on the event, themes, or specific audience profile. Pro-tip: many conferences that you’ll be approaching to speak at will ask you to provide this outline, so it’s good to be prepared!
See an example of this to the left.
How to secure a speaking opportunity 🔎
Getting a speaking opportunity is actually less difficult than you might think. Whatever your discipline is (be it UX, supply chain management, or thermal engineering) you can bet there will be live events on it.
The internet is a great place to start. A few tips on how to search:
- “Product (or other discipline) conferences 2023” (often events further out will still be looking for speakers). One website we came across was Conference Index which seems to have a very extensive list of conferences across disciplines all over the world.
- “Product conferences Europe” or “Product conferences London/Amsterdam/Stockholm” (basically any city you would like to speak at a conference in.)
- “Best (or top) product conferences,” ”Best product summits,” ‘’Best product events,” (this often brings up blogs which you can then search off the back of). Like this, this, this, or this. Look at last year, this year, and next year as they could all be events that are repeated annually, or even more frequently. Do note, if these are the “best” conferences of your discipline, some might have requirements for speakers (e.g. specific role(s), previous speaking experience, ability to provide a video of you speaking at other conferences, etc.)
- Consider also related disciplines that might be interested in having someone from your role speak at. For product this could be UX, design, user research, engineering, start-up, or industry specific conferences -for us that would be healthcare or health tech.
Once you’ve found some interesting conferences that you’d like to speak at, start scanning their websites for a “Apply to be a speaker” or “Call for speakers” button. You can even be so bold as to look at the page of the event organisers and guess email addresses as firstname@conferencewebsite.com (this actually worked for us!).
What this can look like:
Once you’ve found conferences to apply to, you’ll likely need to fill out some type of form to submit your details and talk suggestion(s).
NB: This approach is a little bit like applying for a job, you might submit lots of applications and not hear back from them all. Keep at it, and if you find that you aren’t having any success, it might be worth going back to step 1 and revisiting the talk proposals you are submitting to see if you can suggest something more captivating.
Preparing for your talk 📚
Congrats! You’ve been selected to speak at a conference! Now it’s time to start prepping. It’s worth checking with the event organisers to see what set up you’ll have on the day.
- Will there be a screen and laptop for you to present off of?
- Do you need to have your presentation in a certain format, or sent in by a certain time?
- Can you include videos with audio?
- Is there a big stage?
- How will the audience be positioned?
Given that audiences will have a mix of auditory, visual and kinesthetics learners, slides can be a great engagement tool. That being said, we’ve also seen some amazing presentations without any visuals — so go with what works best for you!
Some tips for your visuals:
- Stay away from walls of text! Have one point per slide, and any text you have should be in a very big font size. People have a tendency to want to read text (meaning they’ll stop listening while they’re doing so), so it can be useful to have grounding text rather than full sentences.
- Use lots of visuals. Sometimes specific screenshots of your product aren’t actually the most effective, instead a GIF or diagram can tell an even clearer story.
- Don’t be afraid to have loads of slides — Hanne had 78 slides for a 25 minute presentation.
- Use your slides as your cue cards. This saves you from having to hold notes in your hands, and can help make sure you’re on track as you go :)
- Don’t expect your audience to remember things or hang on your every word. Make it super easy for them to follow along by reiterating your key learnings over and over again.
Practising 🏈
Once you have a draft of your visuals done, start sharing it around to anyone who’s willing to give you feedback. The best way to get feedback is by doing a complete run-through to someone. We both did this in front of our 15-person product managers community at work and asked our peers for feedback. Make sure you also find yourself a confidant who is willing to spend some extra time giving you excruciatingly honest and candid notes to help make your presentation as good as it can be, rather than just saying ‘you were great!’
It’s best to try and get yourself to a near-final version of the talk at least a few days beforehand, so that you give yourself time to practice, both the content of your talk but also the length — time yourself and try to consistently be 5 mins under your talk time.
Jen’s talk was around 23 minutes for a 30 minute slot — it’s much better to be well under your talk time, it will mean you’re a lot more relaxed while speaking vs. having to keep an eye on how much time you have left. Some of the other speakers at Turing Fest had this experience, having to skip slides and substantial content at the end of their talks.
Depending on the type of person (and learner) you are, you’ll have a different style of preparation and what will make you feel confident ahead of the day. We prepared slightly differently and wanted to share a glimpse into our different approaches.
Jen
Not the most confident public speaker, not much experience of doing it previously, and likes to over prepare 🙃
- Felt more comfortable having a ‘script’ for each slide, and then worked on making that natural and feel unscripted.
- Went over the whole presentation word for word multiple times, repetition meant it was easier to remember the key points to hit.
- Put prompts for the key points in the speaker notes as a ‘security blanket’ — wasn’t planning to use them, but had comfort in knowing they were there.
- Did the talk in the shower the day of, indicating that the slides weren’t a crutch!
Hanne
Used to work for an NGO that partnered with the United Nations during the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) and spoke at over 30 events across Southeast Asia 🤓
- Likes getting slides in place first, these can act as a guide when presenting by giving you cues as you go. Then sent out this slide deck to friends and mentors for feedback.
- Once a draft was in place, ran through them as if really presenting (standing up, ideally with the slides on a projector or TV). This also helps to point out if there are transitions, visuals, or additional slides needed.
- When slides are at 80+% completeness, ask a few confidants to watch the full presentation and give brutally honest feedback. Ideally 2–3 different people.
- On the day of, attended other sessions at the conferences, and tried to weave in a couple of these anecdotes throughout the presentation to make it feel more “alive.”
What to wear 🧦
This can be daunting, especially if you leave it to the last minute (which we did!) You want to look cool, but also be comfortable.
Again, the internet has some great tips!
- This article helps you think about a multitude of different variables when preparing.
- This write up includes a couple complete outfit options for those seeking inspiration.
- This blog and this blog have some nice examples of what real women have worn on stage.
Ultimately, we suggest choosing comfort over high fashion. Going with sneakers over high heels means you wouldn’t have to be (as) worried about tripping. Wearing something extra tight might make it harder to breathe (which is definitely not something you want on your mind as you’re public speaking!). Don’t wear something you haven’t worn before. Jen opted for a black jumpsuit and trainers, and Hanne a cropped turtleneck and long skirt. Find a look that feels authentically like you, and own it!
The day of 😬
When the big day rolls around, there’s not much more prep you can do, and the best thing is to try (as much as possible) to get into the moment and the excitement of the day! Use the opportunity to watch other presentations, network with speakers and delegates, and take the chance to reflect on your work away from your day-to-day schedule. Give yourself a bit of time alone before your slot to do any final preparations, run for a wee, and maybe do some power poses — there’s a great video here if you want to learn how 🕺 Other than that, take a deep breath and make sure you enjoy it! Live events are great in general (read more about why in our VP of Product, Benji’s, blog here) so make the most of the day!
Have you spoken at a live event since the pandemic? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
