2.6 Delivering a Presentation ⭐️
This section includes an Assignment ⭐ Lessons marked with a ⭐️ are the one's that have an assignment in them. These are mandatory for everyone to get a good grasp of the bootcamp learning. Make sure you do them all and submit them on Slack
In this checkpoint, you'll focus on ways to improve your presentation delivery skills. You'll learn about some useful techniques to help you be more confident, consider the best way to prepare ahead of an important presentation, and receive feedback on a recording of yourself presenting.
You did the work. You put together a stellar slide deck. You have your story and audience all figured out. Now it's time to stand in front of a room (or in front of a computer screen) and deliver an engaging, effective presentation. How will you do that? By following step four in the process the previous checkpoints outlined—practice, practice, practice!
By the end of this checkpoint, you should be able to do the following:
- Describe techniques to capture the attention of a room and be confident
- Prepare, practice, and deliver a presentation
Presentations are on point when everything comes together. Your presentation delivery will be influenced by what you say, how you say it, and where you say it.
What you say
Planning ahead and knowing what you want to say on each slide will help you get your message across without forgetting any important points or finding yourself struggling for words. You don't have to write the script word for word. For many people, the most effective form of speaker notes is a detailed version of the outline you developed in step 1. Make a succinct list of points to hit and know the examples you're going to describe and why they are relevant.
Brainstorming the content for a presentation will lead to a lot of clutter, so remember to review your first draft with a critical eye. Think about your audience and objective. Most sales teams won't care that three different architectures were tested before deciding which one to implement for the software stack behind the new features. They care about pitch points they can use to impress potential clients. It's your job to communicate relevant information.
Capture their attention
Your audience has a lot on their mind. You want to hook them in early and keep their focus. Here are some techniques that can help you capture the audience's attention:
- Tell a compelling story or anecdote that's connected to your purpose or objective
- Make a bold statement or claim
- Present or ask a thought-provoking, open-ended question
- Describe a hypothetical situation
- Instruct your audience to imagine a scenario or experience
- Share a quote or surprising, but relevant, fact or statistic
Each of these can go sideways if you haven't practiced using them or if you fumble on the delivery, so find an opening tone that feels natural and comfortable for you. Then test your opening minute or two on a friend or colleague to ensure it evokes the interested response you're looking for.
How you say it
Your delivery is key to having a dynamic and compelling presentation. Knowing your presentation is strong will be a huge start to helping you feel relaxed and confident. Some additional best practices to consider are described below.
Look the part
Looking like a great presenter will make you feel more confident. No need to go overboard, but make sure you're well-groomed. Wear an outfit that looks professional and that you feel your best in. If you'll be standing, consider the look and comfort level of your shoes.
An eager, positive attitude will be contagious to the audience and can help overcome nervousness. When you practice, work on projecting your voice. Talk from your belly, not your throat. The whole room needs to hear you. If you can, have a friend sit in the back of the room and signal whether or not your volume and speed are OK.
If you are likely to fidget, figure out a way to feel more comfortable in your body. Do your best to behave as you would in a conversation. Even when alone in a room for a video conference, seasoned presenters will still stand and move as they would when presenting to an audience in the same room. This helps you sound and feel more confident.
Develop an awareness of how much you use phrases like "um" or "like" in your speech. These can make a presenter seem a little less put together. It's a common habit for many speakers because it provides an extra second to think about what to say next. Instead, however, try to just pause silently. This is a tough habit to build, but it does improve with practice, and it can have a significant impact on how confident and poised you look when presenting.
Know your stuff
The easiest way to sound confident is to be confident in what you're presenting. Get very familiar with your slides, and—again—practice, practice, practice. The more you know what you want to say, the more certain you'll sound. If your presentation will be followed by a Q&A, brainstorm the questions you expect the audience might ask, and prepare your answers.
It's okay to have notes to keep you on track. If you're using a printed page, use a large font so you can easily read them at a glance on a table or podium. Do not read directly from a script. Even if you are presenting remotely, you'll likely have a camera on you at least some of the time; reading instead of speaking naturally affects your tone and can make you sound stale.
Be aware of your body language
Observe how you hold your body when you're having a really engaged conversation with a good friend. You look at them. You gesticulate when you're making a point, but not all the time. You smile. Consider these as you practice delivering your presentation.
Be genuine. If you're a little overwhelmed by the size of the audience, let them know. Make it positive, "Whoa, look at this room! We've got quite a crowd. I’m a little overwhelmed! But, it's gonna be great. I can't wait to share our plans for this spring's release with all of you!"
Mind your gestures and movement. Too much fidgeting can distract your audience from your content. You'll hear recommendations to stay in one place if you present standing or to keep your hands at your side. Balance these true-and-tested suggestions with what works for you and makes you appear natural and engaging. Watching a video of yourself presenting and analyzing what does or doesn't look good can be quite illuminating.
Engage with your audience
Make an effort to read the room. If it's an afternoon presentation and everyone seems drowsy, acknowledge it and bring as much energy as you can. It can be tempting to stare at your slides. Avoid this, even in practice. Making eye contact with your audience will help them feel engaged and stay focused on you. Scan the room. If you can't get eye contact with everyone, select a few people in different parts of the room to make a connection with as you present.
Where you say it
Fortunately, you won't be presenting at huge trade conferences in your first week as product manager. You'll have plenty of practice in smaller forums and will have gained loads of confidence presenting by the time you move to a stage. Regardless, the venue is an important factor in your success as a presenter.
Given current business dynamics, you're equally likely to be presenting in meeting rooms as you are to be presenting online. Presenting in real life can be easier if you know your colleagues and can play off the energy in the room. On the other hand, presenting remotely allows you to be in a comfortable and familiar space, and it may be easier to have a script in hand. As you gain experience as a PM, you'll have plenty of opportunities to present in both settings and figure out how to make each work for you.
On-site technical considerations
Wasting your stakeholders' time by fumbling with the equipment while they wait is not a good way to start your presentation. For a big, formal presentation, you may want to do a test run in the space and work out any technical issues in advance. For a smaller or informal presentation in a familiar space, arriving a few minutes ahead to set up is usually fine.
Whichever presentation software you use (such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Mindmap) get familiar with its presentation mode. Usually, this mode shows your slides to the audience while you see the speaker notes on your screen. Here's a useful tutorial for Google Slides on how to do this. You can find similar tutorials for all presentation tools.
Take a minute to ensure you won't be disturbed by other apps. There's nothing more embarrassing than a sensitive email or Slack notification popping up on your screen while you're presenting to a group of people. Close any open applications on your computer and disable any notifications that may interrupt your presentation. Operating systems like Windows 10 or OSX have "do not disturb" modes to help do this quickly.
Presenting remotely
Remote presentations pose their own unique challenges. If you are not in the same room as your audience, you can't easily read the room or impact the atmosphere with your positive energy. Similarly, your audience can't rely on physical context clues like your body language or facial expressions. Nevertheless, smiling and projecting positive energy can still be effective.
Depending on the presentation tool you are using, you may or may not be visible while you share your screen and go through your slides. Either way, make sure your slides are especially engaging and easy to understand as they will likely take up the bulk of the screen. Mind your body language even if no one can see you as your tone of voice will reflect it. Make your points clearly and build in time for questions and discussion.
The video below by Mark Bowden provides more tips for making your remote presentation engaging and professional.
Practice, practice, practice
Practice makes perfect, or in the case of presentations—practice makes confidence. Practice is also a great way to refine your content. As you hear and see your presentation in action, you'll start realizing which slides, words, or visualizations you can do without. The more you practice, the sharper your presentation becomes—both in content and delivery.
The amount of practice you need is also related to how much experience you have. When embarking on a new career field, the more practice you get, the better. You will have three product-related presentations in this program, and it's recommended that you spend a good amount of time preparing for each. (Both your content and delivery will be evaluated.) Once you experience the presentation-heavy work life of a PM, you'll eventually get to a point when this preparation comes together fairly quickly. And you may even be confident enough to improvise.
Here are a few tips you can use to quickly ramp up the quality of your presentations game:
- Record yourself practicing your presentation. Use your laptop or phone camera. Watch the recording, noting anything that could be distracting, such as fidgeting. Count the number of filler sounds like "umm" and "ahh." Then try it again and see if you can improve over your last recorded practice.
- You won't have an audience for your practice presentation, but you can practice eye contact by looking directly into the camera for a few sentences, away from the camera, then back at the camera. If you're using your laptop, don't get fooled into staring at your slides; watch that camera.
- We mentioned testing the presentation equipment before your presentation. For important presentations, run through the whole thing if you can. Also, sit where your audience will sit and check out your slides. Make sure all your text and images are easy to see and read, even from the back of the room.
- If you only have an allotted amount of time to present, practice the timing. Identify where you should be in your outline at specific times. As you practice, look at a clock or timer and check if you're staying on track. If you find the timer/clock helps you time yourself, make sure to have one visible during your actual presentation.
- Practice in front of others. Ask a colleague to give you feedback. Presenting in front of someone is inherently different, and a colleague could provide advice on how to improve your slides and content. Ask them what they understood or remember in order to gauge whether you got your main points across.
Remember, practicing is about getting comfortable with your presentation. But, it's also about fine-tuning. You might find that some slides are unnecessary and that others have words better heard than read. There may be phrases that you stumble through when you say them in front of people. Change your script. Improve your slides. Imagine yourself doing this successfully. Set yourself up for success.
Assignment 02 ⭐️
Go back to the presentation about your favorite product you created in the last two activities. Wrap up your slides and submit them in the Slack channel #assignment-02
Submission
In our slack workspace in the channel #assignment-02 paste your slide deck url
Optional Activity
Record yourself presenting it. Your recording should be between six and ten minutes, and it must include both yourself (image, not just audio) and your slides—preferably at all times. (But you may also switch, as long as you show enough of both.) You don't have to submit this recording anywhere but it would give you a good sense of how good you are after watching your own recording.
You can achieve this with some recording tools, like Zoom or Camtasia, but it may require some trial and error and Googling the correct settings.
We recommend recording yourself at least twice, without editing your slides in between. The goal here is to focus on your delivery, not to endlessly tweak the slides. Share your first recording with someone close to you, a friend, a family member and ask them if they were able to understand you. Don't ask for feedback. Instead, focus on what they remember. Did you get your message across?
Examine your recording(s) with the following questions in mind:
- How did you sound? Were you talking too fast? Were you projecting loud enough?
- Count your "ums", "aaahhs" and "likes" or other moments where you stalled. Could you pause silently instead?
- Were you smiling? Did your voice and facial expressions convey positive energy?
- How can you improve your delivery?
Keep in mind that the "favorite product" question is really common in job interviews. You need to sound confident and excited when you answer it. Visit one of the first slides of your notebook to remember "your why." Channel that energy and enthusiasm into your presentation.
You don't have to submit thie recording to us or anywhere on Slack.