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How to prepare for a technical report

At MoscowJS come speakers at various levels. Some have experience of speaking at major conferences. Someone taught at the university or conducted trainings. Many perform in public for the first time.

We help the guys get ready. We give advice on the content, organize joint runs. The quality of the report depends on many factors. In the first approximation, it all comes down to two things:


In this article I will talk about the first paragraph. Namely, how to prepare yourself for a technical report.

The classic preparation process looks like this:
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Let's call it “waterfall”. Many people are preparing to perform like this, and if it works for you - great!

An alternative to this process is an “iterative” process. Just like old Royce :

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As in the design, “waterfall” is not effective in preparing for the performance due to the lack of any feedback. A good report is impossible to come up with the first time. In the process, changes are inevitable.

At the core of the iterative process is a feedback loop, which has to change. Just about this process, I want to tell.

Stages of preparation


Goals and limitations


There is one article on the topic of speeches , which I really like. Its meaning can be conveyed by one sentence: “You are not speaking for your own sake, you are doing this for the sake of the audience!”
... you are not the reason why people came to the conference. They listen to you because of who means much more to them than you: they themselves.
Before you sit down to write abstracts of speech, collect materials, make slides, think about your listeners. What will they do after your performance? Wish to try a new framework? Understanding new concepts? Code optimization mechanisms?

Identify the objectives of the report.

Restrictions will help you to do this. How much time do you have to report? How many listeners understand the question about which you will speak? Will there be an opportunity to hold a demonstration?

The report with the theme “Optimization in the mobile web” will be strikingly different if you are speaking to people from business or developers. If you have 15 minutes or an hour.

Constraints stimulate imagination. Some speakers even introduce them artificially. For example: “Show a picture with a platypus on all slides”.

Constraints affect the purpose and content of your presentation. Identify them before thinking about the content. They will greatly simplify further work.

Materials


Now that you know to whom and about what you will be telling, it's time to cover theses. Do not try to identify them the first time.

Write the main ideas of the presentation. Keep in mind the goals and limitations that you identified before.

After that, collect material to reveal theses. Your own thoughts, snippets of articles and videos, pieces of code.

Write a speech summary. Remember, this is just a synopsis. There is no need to disclose each thesis in detail. Use short general sentences. Keep in mind, the outline will vary.

Should you think about entry and conclusion at this stage, you decide. Someone prefers to do them after the main part has “settled down”. Below, I will return to the topic of introductions and conclusions.

Iteration 1: Objectives and thesis disclosure


It's time to get rid of what you have.

 :

Run


Print the draft and tell it to yourself out loud.

Of course, you will rely heavily on the draft. You are unlikely to meet the time frame, you will stumble, become silent and move away from the topic.

Whatever happens, do not start over. Before the audience you will not have such a chance. Continue the story, teach yourself to get out of uncomfortable situations.

What to look for


The first run always leaves an unpleasant impression. But that's all right, that's why we train.

After the story, review the goals and theses of your report.

Do theses serve to achieve the goal? Or is it worth changing them? Perhaps the goals deserve revision?

Pay attention to whether you have enough material to reveal each thesis.

Changes


Change the goals and theses according to what you understood during the run. Gather material on the theses that caused the problem.

Make changes to the goals, theses and abstract of speech .

Result of the first iteration


You better understand the objectives of the report and how to achieve them.

There is enough material to reveal theses and you have already begun to assimilate it .

Iteration 2: Major Outline Edits


It's time for the second run.

Run


With the new version of the draft on hand, chase it again. You will tell some parts without relying on your notes; others do not yet.

Note the total time it takes.

What to look for


At this stage, it is important to understand which theses work better, which worse. What did you like to talk about? What helps to achieve the goal?

Changes


Usually the goals at this point are already stable. So you make a major outline edit .

If something sounds boring or you are not comfortable talking about it, remove it. If something is missing - add.

It's time to come up with an introduction and conclusion if you haven't done it yet.

Sometimes words are not enough. In this case, add a demonstration. An example of the product or a short session of live coding. If the demonstration takes a long time and requires concentration, feel free to record a video and use it.

Result of the second iteration


The speech left those parts in which you feel comfortable and that work.

At this point, you already have a steady story line. With the introduction, the main part and the conclusion.

Iteration 3. Minor outlines


Run


Challenge the performance twice in a row. Note how much time it takes on each part of it.

You know the speech well. The role of the draft support.

What to look for


You know how long your performance takes in general and how much each part takes. You are much closer to the time frame than you were after the first run.

If you speak longer than necessary, it's time to cut the speech .

Changes


Now to refuse pieces of the presentation is difficult. But necessary. You cannot just speak faster, it will not work :) Make it so that it fits into the time frame. Better with a margin of 3-4 minutes.

Throw slides. Previously, there was no point in doing this, since there are still too many “moving” parts in the performance. Now is the time. I will write more about the slides a little later.

Result of the third iteration


You have almost finished speech. It helps you achieve your goals and fit into the constraints. The draft slide is also ready. The last iteration is left.

Iteration 4. Style


Run


You know the speech well. Drive her 2 times in a row. Most likely you will no longer need a draft, but a short plan will come in handy.

What to look for


Identify those parts of the presentation where you should be especially attentive. For example, those parts where you can start talking more than you need.

Changes


Remove, modify or just remember the potentially dangerous parts.

“Polish” speech, slides, demonstration.

Result of the fourth iteration


You are ready to speak! You know your speech and can tell it without the help of any records. You are sure that all the set limits are met and this allows you to not worry too much during the performance.

Speech abstracts are sometimes reworked into an article and published after the report.

Below are a few words about the introduction, conclusion and preparation of slides.

Introduction and Conclusion


The introduction has two tasks. First, let the audience know that your presentation has begun. You give them time to finish what they are doing at the moment and tune in to listen to you.

Many start with a presentation and a short story about themselves. This is a polite way to start a presentation and it works great. I think if the report is not about you specifically, it makes sense to start with something else. In addition, before the performance you will most likely be presented to the public.

The second task of the introduction is to identify the topic of the report and name the main theses. Thus, students will understand how much the report is relevant for them, how much it will continue, how the story will unfold.

The conclusion is a mirror image of the entry. Once again, name the topic of the report and the main theses, summarize.

Recall the objectives of the report and place a call to action in the conclusion. For example “try this framework” or “we need contributors, here’s a link to github”. The call to action must comply with the theses of the report. It would be strange if you talked about optimizations in MySQL, and finally began to urge people to go to you developers.

Let the audience know that you are finished. The polite way that works is to say “Thank you! Questions? Use it if you don’t want to come up with something special.

Slides


Start making slides when the content of the presentation is ready; no major changes are expected. This is important for several reasons:


As for the contents of the slide. Try to have it a little :) If this is a text - use a large font and write only the most basic. If the scheme, it should be simple.

There is a short useful video from Guy Kawasaki on this topic.

Results


There are a lot of helpful tips on how to make a gig. In this article I tried to describe the general method. The basic idea is to drive it out many times and not be afraid to make changes.

At any iteration, you can connect outsiders who appreciate the performance, advise something. The sooner you do this, the better.

The speech process deserves a separate article. I have compiled a few helpful links to this topic below.

And how are you preparing? Describe the process in a few sentences in the comments.

If after reading you have a desire to make a report, act! Mitapy - a great platform for beginners speakers! Choose the one that is closer to you by activity and send an application. I will be happy to help you prepare, write. Here are some of my personal preference meetings:



PS Thanks to bashmish , @BSDaemon, lahmatiy and tenphi for help in preparing the article!

Links


Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/230019/

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