Giving Technical Presentations

91
Giving technical presentations Material prepared by Mike K Smith

description

Thoughts on presenting technical (scientific) information.

Transcript of Giving Technical Presentations

Page 1: Giving Technical Presentations

Giving technical presentations

Material prepared by Mike K Smith

Page 2: Giving Technical Presentations

Inspiration (blogs)

Presentations:

• Nancy Duarte: Duarte blog

• Garr Reynolds: Presentation Zen

• Chris Atherton: Finite Attention Span

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There are 300 million

PowerPoint users in the

world*

Death by Powerpoint

* Estimate

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There are 30 million

presentations every day*

Death by Powerpoint

* Estimate

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About a million presentations

happening right now*

* Estimate

Death by Powerpoint

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50% of them are

unbearable.*

* Conservative estimate

Death by Powerpoint

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Think of a presentation that has

made an impression on you.

Q: What is it about that

presentation that made it stick in

your mind?

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PREPARATION!!

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Preparing effective

presentations takes time.

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Your presentation is about

marketing…

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Your work / YOU as a brand.

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Your organisation.

Your project team.

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WHY are you presenting?

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WHO is your audience?

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WHAT do THEY

want to know?

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Peer Review

vs.

Decision Making

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Peer Review

You want:

– Input and technical review

– Validation of your work

– New ideas for future work

– Recognition for good work / increased

visibility.

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Peer Review

The audience wants:

– New ideas

– Solutions for their problems

– Recognition for THEIR work / increased

visibility!

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Decision Making

The audience wants:

– To make a decision based on best

available information.

– A clear recommendation.

– Impact of making the wrong decision.

– Confidence that the technical information

is valid / applicable etc.

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Decision Making

You want:

– Your technical input to influence the

decision.

– Credibility with decision makers

– Recognition for your work / increased

visibility.

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Attention!

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“Your brain is lazy, shallow

and easily distracted…”

Chris Atherton

Ooh,

look...

A hypertext

link!

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5/16/2013Pharsight and Pfizer Confidential

p

Pain Relief, P(Y=1), and Recurrence, P(T>t), modelsModel parameters are estimated using nonlinear mixed effects model

analysis (NONMEM V)

• Pain Relief Model

– Logit transformation

– Placebo model

– Drug model

– Effect site concentration

– Subject specific random effect

• Recurrence Model

– Hazard model

• Likelihood

Yedp +)(Cf+t)f = )}Yg{P( (1

)-e(Atrialbase)-e(A(t)f dosendttt

p

)(-k

dose 2 pl,

-k

pl2pl

nd

pl 11+ =

)()(

)(

tCpekeotCe

CeslCef

tkeo

n

d

),0(~ 2 N

(u)du)(- = S(t)= t)>P(T

t

0

exp

)}1({)log( YPghzhz(t) si

))1/(log(}{ xxxg

L = P(T,Y| )P( )d = P(T|Y, )P(Y| )P( )di=1

N

i=1

N

YAWN!

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Feels like…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldrabek/1284981253/

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Insects are all around us

• The cricket is very sensitive to

temperature.

• You can tell the temperature using

crickets.

• Count the number of chirps in 15 seconds

and add forty.

• The resulting number is very close to the

temperature in fahrenheit.

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Your brain can read faster

than the presenter can talk.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/26883252@N08/3284112021

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Technical Presentations

≠ Read manuscripts

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Manuscript structure

• Introduction

• Methods

• Results• Discussion

• Conclusions

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“Skip to the end...”

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"Technical presentations

shouldn't be a mystery novel

where you wait to see whodunnit.

Having the conclusion upfront

helps people put the information

that comes next into context". -

Olivia Mitchell

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Peer review structure

• Introduction / Motivation• Premise / Conclusions

• Methods

• Results

• Applicability / Applications

• Discussion, assumptions, caveats, etc.

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Decision making structure

• Introduction / Motivation

• Recommendation (Suggested

actions)

• Results (Evidence)

• Discussion, assumptions, caveats, etc.• Methods

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Clear motivation is important.

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Why is this important?

Why does it deserve a

presentation?

Why am I giving up my time?

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What do you need me to do?

Is this for information?

Do you expect a decision?

Do you want input?

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Engagement!

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Huh? What was he saying?

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Make your message “sticky”.

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You CAN engage your audience

on technical stuff without losing

their attention.

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Story / Narrative

A sequence of unconnected facts

is hard to hold in your head.

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Symphony / Gestalt

What is the “whole”?

AKA The BIG PICTURE

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Empathy

Why should we care about making

the right / wrong decision?

Why does <<this>> matter?

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Simple language

Conversational.

NOT corporate.

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What are the 4-5 things you want

the audience to recall later?

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Everything else is backup.

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But what about the details?

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If you need to share LOTS of

technical info, write a

manuscript (or an executive

summary)

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If you show tables / graphs...

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Make them legible.

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Make them intelligible

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Avoid the audience asking:

“What the **** is that picture?”

OR

“Why the **** is that picture there?”

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

Interpret this graph in the next 10 seconds…

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

Is THIS important?

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

Is THIS important?

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

De-emphasise what you don‟t need

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Are equations EVER

REALLY necessary?

Keep „em simple.

Highlight the key points.

Page 64: Giving Technical Presentations

5/16/2013Pharsight and Pfizer Confidential

p

Pain Relief, P(Y=1), and Recurrence, P(T>t), modelsModel parameters are estimated using nonlinear mixed effects model

analysis (NONMEM V)

• Pain Relief Model

– Logit transformation

– Placebo model

– Drug model

– Effect site concentration

– Subject specific random effect

• Recurrence Model

– Hazard model

• Likelihood

Yedp +)(Cf+t)f = )}Yg{P( (1

)-e(Atrialbase)-e(A(t)f dosendttt

p

)(-k

dose 2 pl,

-k

pl2pl

nd

pl 11+ =

)()(

)(

tCpekeotCe

CeslCef

tkeo

n

d

),0(~ 2 N

(u)du)(- = S(t)= t)>P(T

t

0

exp

)}1({)log( YPghzhz(t) si

))1/(log(}{ xxxg

L = P(T,Y| )P( )d = P(T|Y, )P(Y| )P( )di=1

N

i=1

N

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Same for tables of numbers…

Which numbers changed?

By how much?

Why?

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HELP the audience

to understand

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IN SUMMARY:

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Prepare

• Know your audience

• Know why you‟re presenting

• Know what the audience expects

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Attention

• Don‟t fire-hose your audience with

information.

• Keep slides simple

• Back up presentation with additional

material (exec summary / manuscript /

blog)

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Engage

• How do you want your audience to recall

later?

• Make it as easy as possible to recall…

– Slide format

– Story / gestalt / empathy / simple language

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Further reading (blogs)

Presentations:

• Garr Reynolds: Presentation Zen

• Nancy Duarte: Duarte blog

• Chris Atherton: Finite Attention Span

Other:

• Guy Kawasaki: How to change the world

• Seth Godin

• Kathy Sierra: Creating Passionate Users

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Backup

AKA: Mike‟s rants about

presentations

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Things I hate to hear in

presentations:

(And how it translates to the

audience…)

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“Most of you will have heard

this talk before…”

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“I‟m going to have to skip ahead,

because time is short…”

[Followed by in-depth discussion

of every bullet point]

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“OK, let‟s skip to the

conclusions…”

[Skips fifteen slides]

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What you say: “I know this

slide is hard to read…”

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This slide intentionally blank

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You don‟t have to use the

template

The following templates are

HONESTLY straight from

Powerpoint default templates…

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16/05/2013 80

How to communicate bad news

State the bad news

Be clear, don’t try to obscure the

situation

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16/05/201381

Goal and Objective

State the desired goal

State the desired objective

Use multiple points if necessary

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Is the slide background hideous?

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Avoid “comedy” fonts.

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Will your

document

be viewed by

the public?

Should I use the

Comic Sans font?

Don‟t use Comic Sans

NOYES

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Are you colour-blind?

Is your audience?

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Pie charts are mostly useless

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Pie charts are mostly useless

Looks likePacman

Does not looklike Pacman

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3D charts are even more useless

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ABSOLUTELY NO animation.

BTW – what the HECK is that?!

…and WHY is it in my slide?

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Keep builds to a minimum.

They‟re distracting.

Really distracting.

And they confuse the presenter.

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DO NOT use “random”. EVER.

don‟t use more than one

Whatever you do…

type of effect.