I’m just here for the slides

So… Ever since I bought my first Google Pixel device, I have been a fan. A superfan even… Literally:

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So I tend to get excited about Google events, even nowadays when things are leaked and there are no surprises in the actual events anymore. Things are a far cry from Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone.

Still though, my inner geek gets really hyped about… the slides 🤣🤌🏾🔥

Man there is just so much to learn about presentation and positioning from the way these events are handled. So if you are keen, read along and let’s geek out together a bit.

TLDR

• Clean slides
• Golden thread
• My eyes are here
• Handling difficult conversations
• What can your product do for the user
• Summarise
• Put things in context
• Live demos… Or not

Clean slides

Let’s get this out of the way already, “death by powerpoint” is dead. There is literally nothing on this slide. Just a name.

Not Kofi the 3rd, first of his name, the father of cats and presenter of slideshows.

And this is ok. In fact its personal and more authentic. And the dude presenting here is qualified… with a capital Q.

Be authentic, be simple, keep your slides clean.

A golden thread

People relate to stories and telling stories is a skill that you can practice. One powerful tool that people use in presentations is the “callback”. A callback is when you revisit something that you established earlier. It is also a really tactical psychological trick.

Let me explain…

Kevin Hart (love him or not..) is a great story teller. He draws you into his storyline and you feel as though the content is authentic. He tells stories, not jokes. Stand up comedians use the “callback” all the time.

• Pick something important you want to drive home eg. Making AI Helpful for everyone
• Explain the concept
• Keep coming back to it

Google did this positioning their brand (and their flavour of AI) as “Helpful”.

Callbacks serve a few purposes in stand-up comedy:

• They help connect different parts of the performance, making it feel more complete.
• They can make the audience laugh and remember the earlier joke.
• They let the comedian surprise the audience by changing or adding to the original joke.
• They can give the performance a satisfying ending by bringing back something familiar, kinda like going full circle.

Kevin Hart explaining about how his bank account is set up, is a great example of this.

Side note… Don’t overdo it:

In this event, Google made reference to “help” 78 times. I guess they really wanna help you 🤣

My eyes are up here

Lol here’s what I mean… Google used a “resting slide” whenever the speaker wanted you to pay attention to what they were actually saying rather than focus on the slide show.

It was a G 😎

There’s nothing to focus on here… so you have to listen.

The slides are an adjunct.

Not the star of the show.

Handling difficult conversations

We all remember what happened to Microsoft when they announced Windows recall.

It didn’t go well.

And now Google knew they were set to announce something that could be perceived to be similar.

So how come it’s different now?

Positioning.

With your permission, it can offer unparalleled personalized help, accessing relevant information across your Gmail inbox, your Google Calendar…

They clearly address the concerns by repeating the part about “With your permission” and “AI on your device”. It’s simple, it’s succinct but it makes the point. Apple did a similar thing with “Apple intelligence” — their focus was control, you are in control of when things happen on device and when they don’t.

Addressing your customer’s (potential) objections head on is super important.

In order for Gemini to be your go-to, trusted assistant for your most important tasks, it’s critical that your personal information is protected and private.

With your permission, a truly capable AI assistant can help you connect your relevant personal data with all the valuable knowledge that Google has organized and made accessible.

Then quickly switch back to what your product can do for the user #Segue… 🔥

What can your product do for the user

If you are doing a presentation, it means you are talking to people. Whilst you have your set of things that you want to achieve by doing your presso — the people that are listening to you have their reasons for being in your audience (hopefully the right audience) and so you have to cater to why they are there.

Overly technical language and unclear examples and use cases are all things that detract from the goal — unless your audience is technical. The aim is to clearly show what benefits a user can gain practically from your product, and not just a spec sheet.

This is a part that Google handled really well in the presentations at the event.

Summarise

By now we are all familiar with Apple’s bento-style summary grids. It has become a trend amongst the design community — and whilst I feel like it is information overload it does make a good point.

In each presentation there should be a handful of key things that you want people to take away from what you are saying. Also, as we have learnt from playing broken telephone, what you say… may not be what people hear.

So this is where repetition comes in. Use it in normal conversations but definitely use it in presentations. In everyday conversation you can say things like:

• Here is what I am hearing…
• Let me quickly recap what you are saying…
• Are you saying…

In presentations, when you get to the end of a particular section, recap what you would like people to remember. Use a slightly different set of adjectives (unless you are using a callback) and reiterate what you wanted to drive home.

Put things in context

Steve jobs famously demonstrated the 1000 songs in your pocket moment that has since become and iconic explanation of putting things in context. Saying the iPod had 256mb of space or whatever the number was definitely doesn’t have the same effect as helping you imagine 1000 musicians sitting in your pocket.

Google kinda did this, but I would argue that saying “The thinnest foldable” is more of a flex than a benefit. A foldable that fits in any jeans… no matter how tight… would have illustrated the same point but more from a user benefit perspective.

Unless your audience is technical, try to stay away from technical specs in areas where they are not necessary. Keep the story focused on the listener and what your product can do for them — how it can improve their lives.

Live demos… Or not

Elephant in the room time?

So like…

Can you see the pain in his face? This still was seconds before the dreaded “something went wrong message” popped up on the screen.

Google has had really unfortunate luck when it comes to these AI demos, remember — That day Google lost $100 million in share value. Because of a live demo.

I mean at this point, did it need to be live? Maybe… in the demos from other companies this part was always live so to compete I guess they felt pressure to. But in your use case, the chances are it doesn’t need to be. Depending on what you are showcasing, the value of a live demo can be negligible if the rest of your presentation is compelling.

A prerecorded video that clearly happens in a natural non simulated environment could go just as far. And when I watch demos (because I’m paranoid) who’s to say that the live demo wasn’t orchestrated in some way anyways — Samsung was famously caught faking photos of the moon in real life.

Think carefully about what you need to illustrate, and see if live plays into that. If not… skip the cringe.

The last word

This was fun to write about, and it was another interesting big tech event to watch. There is still so much more to talk about and learn from things like this. One day we should totally talk about Google’s AI branding… Assistant > Bard > Gemini > Gemini Nano > Man… 😅

Thanks as always,
Kofi ☕️

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