11 tips on presenting ideas, concepts or designs

I don’t claim to be the best presenter in the world but I’m a student of the art of presenting because I realize its importance. Good communication and presentation skills are essential in order to succeed in the industry.

The best idea in the world will not go anywhere if no one is willing to support it. Presentation skills are essential for rallying people to your cause. The following tips should help you get better at it.

The art of presenting ideas, concepts or designs

• Know your objective. It’s not easy to improvise. Always know your main idea; what you’re trying to get at. Create a high-level structure in your head of how you’ll get there.
• Don’t bring notes. Prepare thoroughly. Writing your presentation beforehand will make you focus on the wording. If you need supporting documents, follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule. It will force you to simplify your presentation.
• Don’t worry about the wording. It will make you lose track of your train of thoughts. Communication is 55% body language, 38% tone of voice and 7% words. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
• Make visual contact. To create a relationship with your audience, make eye contact. Changing your attention mid-sentence and avoiding looking exclusively at the main stakeholders (natural bias) will make this work.
• Create gaps in knowledge. De-stabilize your audience by showing how they lack knowledge on your topic (eg. Did you know that more than 30% of your users hate using your website?). Use your presentation to fill that gap.
• Vulgarize. Simplify your explanations. Create a presentation simple enough for your mom to understand but relevant enough for colleagues to enjoy. Avoid technical or industry terminology.
• Be enthusiastic. Passion is contagious. You’re a lot more likely to get people’s attention if it shows that what you’re talking about is exciting, refreshing and interesting.
• Be interesting. Vary your tone. Play with emphasis, silences and gestures as appropriate.
• Be different. Tell annecdotes about your life, ask questions, use story-telling, humor, visual imagery, etc to get your point across. There’s value in being different and breaking expectations.
• Be concrete. Avoid abstract concepts. Put everything in a context that your audience can relate to. Provide everyday life examples (eg. Your curent transactional process is as if you’re going to a store and …).
• Practice. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Practice makes perfect. You get the point; it’s the best way to improve your presentation skills.

The next post in this serie will be on design. Subscribe to our feed to make sure you’re not missing out.

Suggested Reading

• 11 tips on creating great user experiences
• 12 tips on improving work, life and the work-Life balance
• Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath