This was an insightful book that presented how PowerPoint presentations can move from MEGO, “Mine Eyes Glaze Over”, to Aha! Some of the most important elements for me were:
1 – Story, story, story: I have always been a strong believer in this. The hard part is finding a good ‘sounding board’ or someone who is willing to take the time to walk through the process of developing a story. The brainstorming process takes time and according to Mr. Weissman is critical to creating a valuable and comprehensive presentation.
2 – Know your Audience: The value of the story (WIIFY – what’s in it for you) and the way that you tell the story must be tailored to the specific audience you are presenting to. This can be difficult when there is a wide range of interested parties in a room. However, a well rounded and constructed presentation has the ability to bring a group together to a common understanding and conclusion.
3 – Finding a Flow: After the two key elements above are determined, then a conscious choice must be made to follow one flow and stay committed to it throughout the presentation. This relates to telling the story so that you don’t have any holes in the development of the story. For example if you start a story and it is focused on sales numbers then you cannot just jump to product features. If product features are critical to the complete story then you have to create a slide that will make an obvious link between the two ideas.
After beginning with the above ideas, the book addressed a number of examples of openings, usage of graphics, simplifying text, reviewing the final presentation and other detailed suggestions. Overall, once read, this book is a great reference for presentation development.
Ironically “Presenting…” referred to the book “Don’t Make Me Think” which is another favorite of mine regarding usability and simplifying presented information.
