Designing A Talk
I’ve spent the past two hours pacing back and forth inside a small hotel room, talking to myself, preparing to go on stage. As a designer, I never anticipated giving a talk to of thousands of people but find myself presenting to large groups with increasing frequency. I was even asked to speak at Apple’s iPad Pro launch last September.
This is not my natural state. I’m an introverted person. I’m quiet when I meet someone new. Thankfully, there are a few things that help me get comfortable talking about my work (and my team’s work) in front of large groups.
SCRIPT YOUR INTRO AND OUTRO
Every word, not just an outline. Practice these two parts over and over. I can’t work with a full script, but my first and last few lines are always identical. The intro is for you - it’s where you get your footing and it helps you build confidence. The outro is for them - it should connect the pieces of your talk and leave the audience with something digestible and memorable.
REPETITION
Start by telling people what you are going to say (beginning), say it in a compelling way (middle), and repeat what you just told them concisely (end). Watch a great keynote — the general structure of most sections are:
- I’m going to show you x
- Look how great x is
- I just showed you x
Repeat key points until you feel uncomfortable. To your audience everything is new. They may need to hear new ideas a few times before they connect.
WITH VISUALS, MORE IS MORE
My slide decks are always very long. I average about 4–5 slides a minute if my talk is public, and 1–2 if it’s part of a conversation. Having a ton of visuals does two key things - it keeps the audience entertained, and your slides can be used as a replacement for speaker notes.
Every image moves the story forward and triggers a talking point without forcing me to read, or memorize exactly what I want to say. Don’t have many slides with just words — people should be listening, not reading. Use animations to show change of state. Use breadcrumbs so your listeners don’t lose their way. Use simple language and avoid jargon. And never underestimate the power of an animation to communicate a complicated concept.
TALK TO YOURSELF
Practice out loud. Record Yourself. Listen to it. It’s going to be terrible — get over it. Especially if you don’t want to go full script, listening to a good execution of your presentation will help you remember your talking points. The more you practice, and the more you hear yourself do well, the more confident you’ll be in front of an audience.
AT THE EVENT
Turn off all electronics at least an hour before you present. The only thing you need to be thinking about on stage is your presentation. It’s easy for a conflict at work or a difficult conversation with a loved one to follow you on stage, especially if it catches you off guard. Whatever it is, it’s not the most important thing at that moment.
Do a full run through once that day, but not right before you go on stage. Warm up so it’s fresh in your mind, but save some energy for the audience.
THE AUDIENCE IS YOUR FRIEND
Everyone wants you to do well. Maybe they spent money to be there. At the very least, there is something that they could have been doing that they aren’t because they chose to see you. You’re an expert and you have something unique to offer. And in the few cases I’ve been asked to talk about a topic where I wasn’t an expert, I’ve said no. Put yourself in a position to be successful.
And don’t forget to fall back in love with your topic. Good designers are empathetic by nature — put yourself in the place of your audience and imagine how they’ll feel as your story unfolds. If you practice enough you’ll be sick of your talk, but never forget that this is all new to your audience. Slow down, enjoy yourself, and remember why you wanted to be there in the first place.
Reach out to me on Twitter @ericsnowden and I’d love to talk about this post, or answer your questions.
Eric Snowden is Senior Director of Design Adobe, leading product design for Creative Cloud. In the past he’s worked for Behance, 99U, Atlantic Records, Warner Music Group, The New School, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
