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How to Deliver Engaging and Impactful Presentations
It is often said that a Solutions Architect acts as a bridge between the business users and the technical team. To effectively play that role well, there is a need for Solutions Architects to explain complex technical concepts in a simple and non-technical way that business users can understand.
I recognise there are some occasions that I could get too focused on the technical details that I forget to explain them in a simplified manner. What appeared to be some straightforward concepts of Cloud Computing for the technical folks can become very complex topics for business users to digest and understand.
I know I must do something. I started to use analogies such as the game of Snake and Ladders, and the evolution of retail stores to explain cloud migration and migration strategies respectively. I have also begun writing articles since last year to improve my writing skills in demystifying those difficult-to-understand technical concepts.
To improve my presentation skills, I attended a 2-day training course with Daniel Hudson Liu in early Feb 2023. Daniel's course was on 2 Fridays (3 Feb and 10 Feb 2023), instead of 2 consecutive days and I thought that was brilliant as we were given ample time to digest what we learned during the lesson, and then to prepare and rehearse for our oral presentation the following week.
On the first day of the course, before we started the actual lesson, we were asked to do an impromptu presentation and our presentations were recorded. Daniel then gave his feedback and offered suggestions for improvements.
During the lesson, Daniel generously shared his tips and techniques for delivering a high-impact presentation and we were told to incorporate these techniques for our assignment. We were given a week to prepare our second presentation on the following Friday. All of us could see the vast improvement within a week when we watched the 2 video recordings.
During his course, Daniel shared many valuable techniques with us and explained them well with illustrations and group exercises. Here is my pick for the 3 best techniques I like the most:
The Rule of 3
The Rule of 3 simply means presenting information in groups of 3 instead of other numbers, as it seems that our brains can remember things better in that manner. Steve Jobs often used the Rule of 3 in many of his presentations. For instance, when he introduced the iPhone in 2007, he talked about 3 revolutionary products that changed everything - A) Macintosh (which changed the entire computer industry), B) iPod (which changed the music industry) and finally C) iPhone, which would change the mobile phone industry.
When he unveiled the iPhone, it was about 3 distinct products rolled into one - A) Widescreen iPod with touch controls, B) a Revolutionary mobile phone, and C) a Breakthrough Internet communicator.
Similarly, when he gave the commencement speech for Stanford University in 2005, it was about sharing his 3 personal stories — A) connecting the dots, B) love and loss, and C) death.
His successor, Tim Cook did exactly the same when he introduced the Apple Vision Pro, as the third innovation of computing - C) Spatial Computing, after the other 2 types of computing - A) Personal and B) Mobile Computing.
I find the Rule of 3 to be very simple and yet effective. I no longer present my points in any other numbers, but just 3 of my most compelling points (choosing quality over quantity). It becomes very easy to remember the 3 points for my presentations - it's always this point, then that point and finally my last point.
Fake it until you make it
When I first heard about this principle - "Fake it until you make it", I would be honest to admit that I didn't quite like it, as I believe that any presenters should not fake or pretend to know things that they do not know. But I was wrong - nothing could be further from the truth.
Instead, this principle is about having the confidence to carry out the presentation with conviction and move the audience, and that is only possible after many rounds of practice. Granted, there would still be some nervousness when we do the presentation, but when we remember this principle well, we can trick our brain and influence our body language, and tone to give a sense of credibility and authority. And it simply works like magic!
Storytelling
Remember the times we loved listening to the bedtime stories by parents and we can still remember the entire storylines after so many years that we can repeat them for our children? We may not use the exact words or sentences each time we tell the story but we never miss a single plot. This is the power of storytelling.
When we do presentations, storytelling is a technique we can use as it captures the audience's attention, creates an emotional connection and communicates information in a memorable and impactful way. And with storytelling, we never stumble with words or forget our lines, exactly the same manner we tell the same bedtime stories to our children without using the exact words each time.
This is something I can resonate with it when I explained the 6R Cloud Strategies to clients. I find it useful to use the analogy of the evolution of retail stores to explain the impact of each strategy, as I can easily remember each point of the 6R Cloud strategies without memorising them, and at the same time make my content more engaging and relatable.
I learned a lot from Daniel and am excited to apply the new knowledge in my professional life. After the course, I rewatched all of Steve Jobs's presentations and begin to see things I did not notice earlier, no matter how many times I had watched them before. I probably only saw the trees instead of the forest in those presentations previously, and thanks to Daniel, I managed to see the forest now.
Daniel gave me much insightful feedback on my second presentation, so I went back to the office during the weekend to redo the presentation a few more times. As I watched my own recording, it was way much better after I incorporated his suggestions.
What I shared in this article is just the tip of the iceberg and there are many other techniques that Daniel taught during his course. This includes knowing your personality mix - DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) and that of your audience so that you can tailor the delivery of your presentation to make a stronger impact. It is quite impossible for me to cover all the wonderful things he taught in this article, and I think I should not reveal all of his secret sauce as well. You should attend Daniel's course to find out all the techniques.
About the Author
Chan Chee Siong is an AWS Community Builder with many years of IT professional experience. He can be connected at http://www.linkedin.com/in/chancheesiong.
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