10 ways to make your presentations engaging and fun
During our idealo Collaboration Day #3 in April, my colleague and friend John Hoad and me did a talk on presentations, how to NOT do them and how to make them more engaging. I’d like to share some of the “tricks” and methods we talked about.
Disclaimer
The methods or thoughts I am going to share reflect my opinion. Maybe you feel differently about what I am gonna say, and that’s ok. Also, far be it from me to claim that my presentations have amazing designs. I am much better at using words to express myself, while my design skills are rather lackluster.
However, we wanted to talk about some “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to presentations, and we did so in a humorous way (or at least we tried to make it somehow amusing). In no way is this meant to say that you have to FOLLOW our advice, but maybe some of this will be helpful.
Why?
We all have seen our fair share of presentations that had some elements that we simply accept, while maybe, those presentations would have been more engaging, more valuable, more entertaining without those elements.
During our presentation (and in the pictures accompanying this article), we took things too far on purpose, exaggerating. So please take the following with a grain of salt.
- Make it worth people’s time
This is sometimes hard to do, but — when you prepare a presentation/talk, make sure it has value to those who are attending, and that you are choosing the right kind of format.
Example: Are you just going to show a ton of diagrams, datasheets, a long list of KPIs, while reading them out loud? Then, in many cases, it would probably be better to simply write an email. Attach the graphics, maybe add some commentary and notes, and give people time to look at them at their leisure.
I don’t know about you, but when all the presentation is about is just someone showing a metric ton of diagrams while reading them out, I’d very much prefer to just have them available to look at at my own pace. No need for a presentation.
2. A presentation isn’t a script
I am sure I am not the only one who finds it rather tiring if the person doing the presentation simply reads the entire content of the slide, without much else being added. Again: it’d make much more sense to email the whole thing in that case.
People can read, and it’s not necessary to read to them what’s written on the screen, especially since they can read it much faster silently.
It makes much more sense if you point out specific points. If you show a diagram, maybe you don’t have to read the values on it, but instead, just explain the context, talk about WHY the numbers in the diagram are the way they are.
In my humble opinion, what people see on the screen while you talk should be an addition, should be complimentary to what you are saying.
3. Keep it short and simple
It’s easy to remember that one if you think of the band KISS, but that’s beside the point, isn’t it? No one likes to read a wall of text on a slide if someone is talking a lot while they read. It makes it harder to focus and makes it easier to miss bits from either the written text or the explanation you provide.
There are simple guidelines, recommendations on how much text should be on a slide. A simple Google search brought up different recommendations, for example:
- Font size 24
- Not more than 6 words per line, 30 words altogether per slide
- Bullet points as headlines, not convoluted sentences
There also is the “rule of 5”: No more than 5 words per slide, no more than 5 lines of text per slide, no more than 5 text-heavy slides in a row.
Basically: Limit the amount of text. You are providing context and explanations. Don’t make people read a wall of text while you add explanations.
4. Don’t make people wait
This is not about the actual slides, but about how to conduct your presentation. You probably know the situation: You start your meeting online. 20 people are invited. 16 join right on time. You go “Ok, let’s wait another 2 minutes for the others to join”.
Unless it’s absolutely mandatory that the people who haven’t joined yet are there when you start, don’t make 16 people wait because 4 are late.
I once had someone teach me that the hard way. I did exactly what I described above, waiting with a bunch of people in the room. Someone unmuted his mic and said “Eric, I looked at who is in this meeting already and have done a very rough calculation how much money it costs for these people to sit here and wait during their working hours. Please commence.”
It made me rather anxious to hear that. But somehow, the guy was right. These days, unless you have any rules saying otherwise, you can easily record the meeting. So if someone comes in late, he or she can catch up that way. Our you summarize in a very condensed way what they missed if they are 2 minutes late.
5. Summarize. Seriouly.
Which leads me to the next one. It always helps to summarize in between, especially if you are conveying a LOT of information. So maybe, while preparing your presentation, separate it into little chapters and summarize in between, at the end of the chapter. Point out the most important insights and key points of what you just talked about, as in “OK, so far, we know that… Let’s move on, keeping this in mind”.
6. Prepare
Another segue to my next little recommendation. Prepare. Take the time to prepare and familiarize yourself with your presentation. Sometimes, you prepare the presentation ahead of time. Or maybe you reuse a presentation you used in the past. Or you put together your presentation on short notice.
So… imagine you start your preparation and you are not all that familiar with your slide deck. You turn the page and think “Oh yeah, right, that was the next point”. Most of the time, you probably will be able to adjust and continue, but… if you are insecure what’s next, or have to read the slide yourself, people will notice. It may even make yourself more insecure.
If you can, go through your slide deck at least once. Rehearse your presentation, especially if it’s an important one.
This also goes for timekeeping. Whether you are the only person presenting or you’re presenting as part of an agenda with several items, please try to make sure you stick to your time limit.
If you do schedule a 20 min meeting to do your presentation, try to stick to it. It’s less stressful both for you and for the participants, as they may have other meetings coming up right after.
A few months ago, a new colleague joined my team. I asked her to do a short talk during one of our company All Hands, and do so in 5 minutes. She really took it seriously, prepared her slides and then actually PRACTICED her talk, as in going through it to plan what she was gonna say.
And she came up to me, slightly chagrined, saying “Eric, I am sorry, I went through it three times, but it always is 5 minutes, 30 seconds”.
I loved that. She had practiced, and she told me that she’d go a little overtime. Which was no problem at all. And it showed how much she wanted to do a good job and respect people’s time. Remember no. 1 above?
7. Unless you work at Pixar, PLEASE cut back on the animations
This may be a little controversial, but… ask yourself: How much does it really add if my info boxes on the slide fly in from different corners of the slide? Is it necessary to visualize the message “Our project took off very well” by having an animated rocket fly all over the slide?
Animations can be distracting, and I believe that in the majority of cases, they don’t really add anything or make your point stand out more. Your mileage may vary, I know.
8. Cut back on gifs
Just like Comic Sans, gifs have been around for a while. Don’t get me wrong, if you have an amazing point you want to make and find an animated gif or a meme that fits incredibly well, consider using it.
Apart from that though… I got really tired of seeing the same memes of Minions or “The Office” or whatever.
Do we really need an image of that nerdy guy from that old sitcom when we talk about developers? Do we really need a picture of minions when it’s about working together and getting stuff done? And please don’t get me started on that meme with the guy who is looking at that girl while his girlfriend looks at him angrily.
This is just my opinion, but I always think “2009 called and wants it’s presentation design back”. It’s been done about a million times before.
Having a slide on screen with a looping animation that really doesn’t add anything is just pointless, sorry. And even though 2% of the people may still laugh at that funny minion meme (in case there ever has been one)… just don’t do it. And don’t use Comic Sans either, unless your presentation is about the development of computer fonts or how a font that may have been hip in 1999 now has become a sad cliché.
9. Be authentic
If you are used to hosting talks and doing presentations, you probably stopped reading this article rather early on. However, if you haven’t done a lot of them yet or if you tend to feel insecure or nervous when you do one (especially when there are a lot of people watching or when, I dunno, C-Level is in the call as well), my advice is: Prepare (it will help with the nerves, trust me) and be authentic.
Are you nervous? Say so! Are you stuck for a second, did you lose the point? Say so. Pretty much everyone watching probably has been there and can relate.
10. Tell a story
What is the message you want to convey? What key takeaways do you want people to… uhm… take away? What is the story you’re telling? Plan ahead.
A good, simple and proven structure would be “Where are we now? Where do we want to go next? How do we get there?”
Have a little storyline, a script. An intro, the most important thing next, an outlook or a conclusion at the end. Or ask a question at the beginning, dive into the topic and, finally, go back to the intro question and answer it.
This may seem obvious, but it isn’t. Once again, respect people’s time. What is it you want to say? Structure it, relate it as a story, put some scripting into your meeting. It’ll be much more pleasant and engaging to listen to.
Once again…
Opinions may differ on some of these things. These are just the things I’d like to see less (animations, animated gifs, minions, speaker reading the entire text on slides, Comic Sans) and the things I’d like to see more.
One thing that John and me both reported was that some of the attendants of our talks got in touch with us a little while later, saying stuff like “Hey, I watched a presentation a week after your talk and just had to chuckle… there were MINION MEMES in there and I was like: What’s the point?”
I just would like to point out that sometimes, it is a good idea to think about these kind of “tools”, these kind of elements that we see so often in presentations, and really ask: “Does this ADD anything?” If it really doesn’t, remove it. Make it worth people’s time.
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