Neal Ford - Presentation Patterns: Techniques for Crafting Better Presentations

Techniques for Crafting Better Presentations

NEAL FORD | MATTHEW MCCULLOUGH | NATHANIEL SCHUTTA

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ford, Neal.
Presentation patterns : techniques for crafting better presentations / Neal Ford,
Matthew McCullough, Nathaniel Schutta.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-321-82080-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Presentation graphics software
Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. McCullough, Matthew (Matthew J.) II. Schutta, Nathaniel T.
III. Title.
P93.52.F67 2012
005.58dc23 2012018963

Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

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ISBN-13: 978-0-321-82080-8
ISBN-10: 0-321-82080-0

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
First printing, August 2012

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demonstration showing a lengthy set of steps

implemented in Keynote

an upcoming case study

character indicating that better examples will appear shortly

eat a lot of space in this representation of a conference template.

in an unattractive way

stock photos

in Keynote

in PowerPoint

Agile Engineering Practices presentation

: Introducing the Pattern concept

: Changing only the first letter

: Adding idiomatic to further the definition

to migrate the title to the top

: Adding two subcategories

: Adding subcategory examples

: Adding examples for the other subcategory

: Adding the last definition nuance

: The slide inspector in Keynote highlighting the complex life of the pattern text box

slide in the designer

(beginning position)

with body

slide in designer

slide in designer

slide in designer

in the PowerPoint designer

slide as presented

slide in the Keynote designer

slide

slide

in source code

in PowerPoint

videos

As you can discern from its subtitle, this book is about crafting better presentations. But why should anyone write yet another tome on the subject? Although most existing material on creating better presentations and becoming an improved presenter is useful, it doesnt go far enough. It lacks the overarching principles that guide the way to successful presentations andperhaps even more importantits not sufficiently actionable. Maybe youve learned how slide shows are like a serene state of mind and how to find harmonic tones on color wheels. But how will that knowledge help you create an effective new presentation next week? Abstract knowledge lets you judge whether something is good or bad, but you need concrete advice to advance to the next level: creating something great.

Generally, instruction in crafting presentations involves the mechanics of how presentation tools work, not how to use them effectively. Unless you majored in speech, you must learn most of the skills required to deliver effective presentations on the job, frequently under duress. Public speaking is stressful, so thoughts on effective presentation techniques tend to wane as the dreaded due date creeps ever closer.

Most nascent presenters are lucky if theyve been treated to a one-day class on how to use a presentation tool, absent any instruction or guidance on how to leverage it to craft effective communication. The default path is to use the wizards and other helpers built into the tools. Unfortunately, many of these wizards and helpers make your communication less effective. For example, the default slide type in many templates is the bulleted list. Although useful in isolated cases, it generally leads to what weve defined as the pattern.

This books authors have developed a unique perspective on presentations tied to our background in software development. This perspective helps us understand and discuss presentations at a deeper level. Presentation Patterns is the distillation of our knowledge and experience into practical techniques for crafting and delivering compelling presentations. Knowing how we came to our distinctive view of presentations will help you understand how this book can give you an edge.

All three coauthors write software for a living, which classifies us as computer geeks. But were an odd breed of geek: We like speaking about building software to sometimes large crowds of other geeks. As software developers, we crave concrete solutions to problems. All three of us specialize in agile software development, one of whose tenets is the concept of improvement via feedback loops. When youre programming something new, one strategy is to write the source code for a small portion of it, find out if it works properly, write a little more, and iterate, while checking the results all along the way. The key concept is that of establishing a feedback loop. This concept can apply to improving presentations as well as software. If you could organize a boot camp that uses feedback loops to teach better presentation skills, what would it look like? Each recruit would be required to create a variety of presentations covering many technical subjects, deliver the presentations to knowledgeable audiences of varying sizes, receive detailed feedback from the audience after each talk, and quickly revise the presentations to improve them before giving them again.