Don't rush to open PowerPoint when writing a presentation

Don’t open PowerPoint

One of the biggest mistakes we can make when writing a presentation is to open PowerPoint first.  We’ve all been there, including me.  We open PowerPoint and start adding information, create the opening slide, graphs, bullet points, and loads of other data.

Then we end up getting lost and the presentation has no structure, no focus and we have endless rewrites hoping that it will make some sort of sense when we present it.

Before opening PowerPoint, I recommend doing these other things first, this will cut down on how long you take putting your slides together.

1: Consider the audience’s needs

Who is going to be in the audience?

Why should they care about what you are presenting?

What is going to be the impact of your message? e.g. is it good news or bad news?

How much detail should you go into?

What time of day will you be presenting?

What questions or objections could your audience have?

By first considering your audience, it helps you understand how to pitch your presentation and how much detail or information is needed. 

For example, if doing a project update to senior managers, consider what information they would want to know? e.g. details of how well the project is going, as well as what is still left to complete.

2:  Consider what you want your audience to think, feel, say or do having listened to you?

This is very different from the topic.  Even on a weekly team meeting, we can present facts and figures (who doesn’t love a slide deck with graphs, tables, and bullet points!!!)  

You should also consider what is the focus you want people to take away from the data.   Translating data into ACTION points is crucial.   This is called the CTA.  Call to Action.   

Your CTA should be clear to you before you start writing the presentation, as it gives you focus as to where you are taking your audience during your presentation.

In a team meeting, we could be giving updates on sales figures, or productivity levels, or quality issues. Then we must decide what focus do we want our audience to take away.  

Having this CTA at the forefront of your mind gives you focus.  

If we don’t have a focus, it’s like getting into a taxi and not knowing what your destination is.  The taxi driver would not know where to take you. You need to be clear where you are taking your audience. Start with the end in mind.

3: Structure

In any presentation we always have limited time.  Therefore, we can’t always include everything we want to.   Adding a structure allows us to know what information to include in our presentation and what information we exclude. 

Think of a basic restaurant menu.  It will often have a basic structure

1: Appetiser / starter

2: Main course

3: Desserts  

There are three main parts to the menu. Without this basic structure, it becomes harder for someone to read the information and decide what to order.

In your presentation, structure allows you to consider what journey you are taking your audience on, it also makes it easier for your audience to follow your presentation and CTA.

4:  Now, finally, we can open PowerPoint and start creating our slides based on the previous 3 steps.  This makes it easy to write the slides and more importantly will make more sense to the audience when they are listening to you present. 

Remember, PowerPoint is just a visual aid.  It should NOT be your presentation; it should act as a guide for you to narrate. 

The golden rule is always, less is more. 

Don’t fill each slide with data and words.  Include the key messages that will help you narrate your information.

If you are constructing a building, the first thing you would do is PLAN before ordering the building materials and starting construction.  It’s the same for presentations.  

Planning in advance will save time on construction and will help make your presentation easier to understand for your audience.

Keep creating and keep growing.

Let’s do this!

Darren