3 presentation lessons from Jam London 2017
I think presentations skills are under-appreciated. They’re seen as a nice-to-have, rather than a must-have.
In research, design and product management there are few things that are more important that communication. Not all communication involves standing up in front of an audience, but when somebody has to do a presentation, it makes a huge difference if they are a good presenter.
Two weeks ago, eight of us from Lyst went to Jam London 2017, a conference about building products and the lessons we learn along the way.
I want share a few presentation highlights from the conference, and talk about the art of presenting and how important it is.
1. Confidence
Confidence is like the oil in the gears of a presentation. When it’s there, everything runs smoothly. When it’s missing, you really notice it.
Eva Liparova gave a presentation about her work at the V&A. She was definitely one of the best speakers.
The way she stood, the tone of her voice and the pattern of her speech made it seem like she was talking to a handful of people, rather than hundreds.
Why is it important?
Confidence puts people at ease.
Have you sat through a presentation given by someone who was visibly nervous? It can be uncomfortable. The chances are you’ve been in their shoes, so you empathise with them and you feel nervous for them.
A nervous presenter won’t get their point across as clearly and the audience can be distracted by their nervousness too.
So what’s the solution?
I think we need to view presenting as an important skill and do more to help people develop it. It’s not enough to just throw people in front of an audience every now and then — they need practice, but they also need more guidance.
2. Energy
If you’re confident and your audience is at ease, the next important thing to have is energy.
Ed Cooke’s talk about Memrise was many things: it was funny, it was interesting, but most of all it was energetic.
As with confidence, energy is about how you move, how you speak and what you say. Ed moved around the stage, he gesticulated and he spoke quickly and colourfully.
Why is it important?
Energy keeps people engaged.
If you’re presenting without any energy it can give the impression that you’re not very interested in what you’re saying. In contrast, Ed seemed excited by what he was telling us.
Excitement is contagious. Energy is contagious. I was hanging on Ed’s every word.
It’s very common for a presentation to lack energy, and that isn’t always a problem. Maybe the content requires a more measured approach, or maybe you’re just a very laid back presenter.
But there are so many presentations that would be improved by an injection of energy. The content isn’t always the most exciting stuff. Maybe the audience has sat through several presentations already. If you want them to pay attention and remember what you’re saying, you have to make them feel it.
My colleague Tom Petty recently gave an internal presentation about design at Lyst. He’s a great speaker who really gets into it, and it made a huge difference.
It’s common for senior people to give lots of presentations and, while they usually have lots of confidence, they don’t always create the kind of atmosphere that Ed and Tom do.
We should view presenting as a serious skill and require senior people to develop that skill if they are going to be entrusted with that job. Or we should nurture people who have a talent for presenting and give the job to them more often.
3. Humour
Humour is like the icing on the cake. If your audience is at ease and they’re engaged, you’re doing a great job. If you can make them laugh, even better.
Pantelis Korovilas spoke about a project that he had worked on at Hopper where it didn’t all go to plan.
It was a great presentation in general, but it also had a brilliant and funny moment that stood out.
He was talking about the folly of highlighting a feature to users with a call-out, instead of questioning the way the feature was implemented. I can’t recreate the joke here, but his basketball slide (above) got a big laugh.
Why is it important?
Humour lifts the mood and reinforces important messages.
A presentation is like a contract. People have decided to sit and listen to you, so you’d better make it worth their while.
There’s lots of ways to do that, but smart use of humour just makes the whole experience more enjoyable. It makes people more engaged in what you’re saying. It can turn a good talk into a great talk.
You have to make sure that the humour is helping your presentation though. Gabriel Valdivia gave a great talk about VR, and just like in Pantelis’s talk there was a big laugh at one point, when he showed this gif:
I can’t remember what point he was making with it, and that’s the problem really. The gif was too good. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I still can’t.
The best thing about Pantelis’s basketball joke was that it helped to reinforce the point he was making. That’s the gold standard.
But there doesn’t always have to be a point to reinforce. There are a few people at Lyst who regularly make us all laugh when they get up and talk about something. It just makes it a better place to work, and that’s really valuable too.
Elevating the art of presenting
My main feeling post-Jam is that presenting is really important: more important that we usually think.
It’s important for the audience, because they want to enjoy your talk and learn something.
It’s important for you, because being a great speaker gets you the opportunity to present at things like Jam.
And it’s important for your company, because better communication leads to better products.
So we need to value presentation skills and teach people to present with confidence, energy and humour.
Do you agree?
Communication in general is such an important part of working in a product team. If you share these values, Lyst is looking for product managers, designers and a user researcher. Send us an application, or get in touch with me for a chat.
