What should I talk about

Coming up with topics for public speaking

In a previous post I discussed why I think it is a good idea to give tech talks, and if you are reading this follow-up post, I hope it means you are convinced.

Now we come to the question of “what should I talk about?”

Don’t worry boy, we’ll find a topic in no time (credit — https://www.rawpixel.com)

My first advice here is to pick something that you find interesting. This is important for two reasons:

1. If it is interesting to you, it is probably interesting to others as well
2. If it is not interesting for you, you probably won’t finish creating the talk

Second, find a few potential topics out of areas you're interested in. To create a topic, you basically need to match a “lecture type” with a technical subject.

Here are a few common subjects:

1. Programming language
2. Framework/Library
3. Software design concept (e.g., design patterns)
4. Methodology (e.g., “Clean Code”)
5. Interesting project you worked on (e.g., “increasing performance by 30% using React lazy loading”)
6. Interesting project you heard about (e.g., “how does company X handle scale”)
7. Domain (e.g., Big data, IoT, etc.)

And here are a few common lecture types:

1. 101 talk (e.g., “what is R language”)
2. New feature/version (e.g., “What’s new in React 18?”)
3. Comparison (e.g., “MySQL vs MongoDB at scale”)
4. Case study (e.g., “50 developers all working on same mono-repo”)
5. Best practices (e.g., “how to use Kafka at scale”)

Next, write down 3-5 potential topics using the match of lecture type and subject without putting too much thought on the attractiveness of the title.

Finally, look at the list you have created, what compels you do most? If you were at a conference and had to choose one of these lectures, which will it be?

And voilà, you have a topic to talk about!

Remember, you don’t have to be a world expert on a topic to bring value to an audience. If you had to deep dive into the subject to create the talk, there are people who haven’t yet, and would be interested in hearing your conclusions.

Some pitfalls to avoid

1. Don’t be too specific — avoid details that are relevant to a very narrow audience, like how to work with a tool only your team uses
2. Don’t be too vague — remember, the idea is to deep dive into the subject, so it will be valuable to you and others
3. Get feedback fast — Don’t wait until it is finished to show your talk to people. Consult with friends (the more diverse they are the better) on the topic choice, the talk agenda, draft etc.
4. Don’t fumble at the last yard — If you don’t deliver the talk with passion, people will not listen. You picked a topic that compels you, let that show in your delivery!

Summary

Anyone can find something to talk about. Trust me, I’ve worked with dozens of people that said they have nothing to talk about and after twenty minutes together at most we found something.
Try my advice and if it doesn’t work, DM me on LinkedIn/Twitter.