iThe Presentation. How Jobs prepared and conducted presentations
Steve Jobs was the best speaker in the world and made the best product presentations, forcing the audience to "sit on the edges of the chairs." The trick is that behind each of these presentations there is a certain preparation and certain techniques. Carmine Gallo (Karmine Gallo) studied the public speeches of Steve Jobs and his preparation for these speeches. As a result, we can read a book that will help you prepare good presentations.
Why this article? Yes, this article does not eliminate the need to read the original source. But personally, I need it as a summary: when I once again prepare for a public speech, I will return to this article and quickly remember what is written in the book.
So let's get started.
')
Jobs wrote the script on paper before taking on digital tools. He worked closely with every detail, including the preparation of descriptive subtitles, slides, demos, and even with stage lighting. Most of the best presentation designers recommend starting with a paper sheet.
Bullets (bullets) kill
When you launch Power Point for you, two fields for the title and subtitle are immediately marked. This creates a desire to write a bunch of unnecessary text. In addition, Power Point provokes you to use numbered or bulleted lists. But Jobs has no lists in any presentation! Take a piece of paper or a napkin or stand at the marker board and start thinking about the script.
Nine common elements of compelling scenarios:
Start with the sensations of your customers and only then proceed to the technology. For example: “Although it is still a full-fledged Macintosh, we aim it to fulfill the main wish of our users - to access the Internet faster and easier. We also intend it for education: it perfectly corresponds to the wishes of its representatives ... We checked all the products available in this market. We found out that they have a lot of common characteristics. The first general characteristic is that they all work incredibly slowly, all of which use outdated processors. Secondly, all of them are equipped with the poorest monitors ... do not have network devices ... are equipped with outdated I / O devices ... All this means that they have the worst performance and their use creates difficulties and problems. This situation has led us to wow-horror! So let me tell you about iMac ... "
Remember that your speech is not about you. People in the audience will ask themselves one question: “How does this concern me personally?”. Answer it soon. Here is an example: “The brand new iPod nano gives music lovers the most that they love on their iPods: double the amount of memory for the same price, incredible work time - 24 hours and a gorgeous aluminum body in five colors.”
Example: "we are here to leave our mark on the universe . " Jobs used this technique when he invited John Sculley to work at Apple. Steve said: “Are you going to spend your whole life selling sweet water or do you want a chance to change this world?” Jobs encourages you to do what you like and this is the secret of his own success. He speaks about his products with genuine enthusiasm and it is contagious. “Work takes up most of your life and the only way to get real pleasure from it is to do what you consider an excellent job. And the only way to do an excellent job is to love what you are doing. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Do not stop .
Destination is an important thing. Millionaire Chris Gardner, who used to be just a homeless person, sleeping with his two-year-old son on the subway, said: “Find what you like most and you’ll go to the sunrise to get up and do what you love.”
In this madness we see the genius
Delightful journey
Interestingly, for example, the CEO of Starbucks believes that their mission is not to simply prepare coffee, but to create "third place between home and work."
Steve Jobs always made up the headlines and used them consistently. For example, like this: “Today Apple has reinvented the phone again” or “MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world”. Jobs spoke and repeated this heading several times in his presentation. Then they appeared in promotional materials and the same headlines were used by journalists. And really: why trust in inventing a headline to journalists, when you yourself can best think up this headline.
The title lives and plays for a long time, so it is important that it is short: no longer than 140 characters. Then any journalist will be able to publish his article with the same title without any changes. When the iPod came out , the title sounded like this: “1000 songs in your pocket.” The media gladly picked up this headline .
Here are some more examples: “the joy of the Internet, the simplicity of Macintosh”, “the greenest laptop in the industry”, “the most popular music player in the world is even better now”, “Iphone 3G. Two times faster and two times cheaper ”,“ Keynote. When your presentation is really important to you. ”
"Today we are presenting three revolutionary products." So begins the speech of Steve Jobs during the presentation of the iPhone in 2007, he said that now he will be presenting not one product, but as many as three: an iPod with touch controls, a mobile phone and a brand new Internet communicator. Then he announced that they were not three separate devices, but one.
Thus, Jobs drew a roadmap: a player, a phone, a communicator, and then followed this map while telling the iPhone, telling first about one, then about the other, and then about the third.
Verbal milestones create a roadmap and help your listeners follow the story. Thanks to these points, which, by the way, should be three (maximum four), the audience will be able to represent where you are now. For example, if you announced three points at the beginning of a speech, and told only two, listeners will demand a story from you about another item.
You may have an "enemy". Those. some kind of opposite to your product or your company or your ideas. It can be either a competing nasty product, or a company following other principles.
Here's what Steve Jobs says in 1984: “Will the blue giant dominate the entire computer industry?” Was George Orwell right? ”
The hero meets the villain and must defeat him. In Jobs's classic talk, you can see an antagonist (problem) presentation that pulls the audience around the hero (the solution). For example, when Steve introduced the iPhone, at the beginning of the presentation he brought out 4 models of smartphones on the market, which were not so smart. Having considered their shortcomings, he passed to the solution.
Prepare a short presentation for an “elevator presentation” involving your antagonist problem. In thirty seconds you need to answer four questions:
As soon as you learn to talk about your product in 30 seconds, they will become much more interested in them.
Apple products arrive on time to save the day and change the world for the better. That is the message Jobs carries in his speeches. The hero must have a worthy mission, which is not to destroy the villain, but to improve our life.
When Jobs introduced the iPod, at the very beginning he told that music is a part of our life and it surrounds us. However, in the world of portable players there is no leader and no good solutions. There are CD-players (big), flash-players (expensive), HDD-players (heavy and expensive). Against this background, he presents the hero: “iPod. 1000 songs in your pocket. ” The solution is simple and free from technical jargon. Jobs represents the benefits of a new product based on user needs.
In Apple products, Jobs ruthlessly removes features and simplifies everything that can be simplified. The same thing happens with the slides that he is preparing. There is nothing superfluous on them. Where most speakers squeeze everything they can into a slide, Steve Jobs removes, removes and removes.
Recently, I was in a comprehensive school at a conference on a healthy lifestyle. Schoolchildren prepared reports and presentations on food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. There I saw an example of a typical speaker with slides. On the slide, a bunch of text + bulleted lists + at least one picture. The speaker reads the text right on the slide. Familiar? A lot of modern “speakers” use slides as a legal cheat sheet and read directly on it, without being embarrassed by their unpreparedness.
Jobs presentations are simple, clear, and have no bulleted lists. He fully knows the text of the speech, remembers the sequence of slides and does not look at the screen at all.
Mac-presentations are dominated by: empty space, photos and pictures, simple words.
By themselves, dry numbers and technical data will not give any benefit. If you visualize them, there will definitely be a benefit. For example, instead of the information that the first iPod had a 5-gigabyte hard drive, Steve Jobs said: “You have 1000 songs in your pocket.” Or this: “30 GB of memory is enough to store 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos, or 75 hours of video.”
The more complex the idea, the more important it is to use rhetorical techniques to facilitate understanding.
Jobs in his presentations often said something like: “he is surprisingly quick” (about an iPhone), “we made the icons on the screen so beautiful that you want to lick them”.
The words that Jobs chose for his speeches are simple (free from jargon), specific (very accurate and short) and emotional (using descriptive additions). Example: “This is a MacBook Air. You can feel how thin it is. He has a full size keyboard. Isn't that amazing? This is how it looks. Great, isn't it? This is the thinnest laptop in the world "... Speaking of the Titanium PowerBook laptop:" I asked you to fasten your seat belts. Now I would like you to be fastened with racing belts over your shoulders. ”
Clear your text, avoid jargon and buzzwords, add descriptive words. Be confident in your product and pass this confidence to the audience, do not hesitate.
Human brains require diversity and no one, no matter how good it is, cannot hold the attention of the audience for a long time. Jobs keynote speeches lasted more than an hour and a half and he managed to keep the attention of the audience. How? With the help of variety - demonstrations, video clips and guest speakers. Jobs knows what he doesn’t know and invites, for example, Johnny Quince to talk about a new way of making laptops from a solid aluminum plate.
Jobs invited Apple's key partners and even enemies, while remaining the most "giving" of the speakers. In order for the show to sparkle, all its members must shine.
When Johnny Ive and his design team came up with the idea of ​​making a laptop case from a solid metal plate, Jobs, taking a macbook, took the case details and ran them along the rows. He gave the opportunity to enjoy kinestetikam.
In general, Jobs devoted most of his keynote speeches to demonstrations. The demonstrations he did were always interesting, colorful and diluted with jokes. So at the presentation of the iPhone, he made a hooligan call to Starbucks and jokingly ordered 4000 lattes to take out. This caused laughter in the hall.
Make a brief, targeted demonstration. If you can bring someone from your team to the show, do it. Present something for audials for both visuals and kinesthetics.
Apple products are surprising. At the MacBook Air presentation, Jobs took out a laptop from an email envelope and at that time the room gasped. The same thing happened when in 2007 Steve showed the first iPhone and showed how to scroll the screen with your finger. In 2009, Jobs presented the next Mac and the computer on this presentation in a synthetic digital voice told about himself. People in the hall jumped up and applauded while standing.
Think how you can surprise the audience and create such a moment in your speech, which the audience will remember for several years.
Get ready to speak and do not read on paper. A dull, monotonous reading of a piece of paper looks awful and lulls the audience. Jobs onstage maintains visual contact, maintains an open posture, and often uses gestures. He controls the tempo, the volume of speech and pauses. Some sentences he says faster, and some slower. Using the usual speed of speech, he noticeably slows it down when he presents the main news or an important idea that students need to memorize.
Watch several of Jobs' speeches and note the tempo, gestures and tone of voice. There is also a good course “Learning to speak in public” from Radislav Gandapas. I recommend to watch it.
Jobs rehearsed for hours. Those. many many hours. One of the leaders of Apple said that he once came to the rehearsal and he had to wait four hours until Jobs came down from the stage. Jobs' speeches are the result of many weeks of work, the finest “orchestration” and massive collective work behind the scenes. The iDVD team spent several hundred hours preparing for a five-minute demonstration. Jobs rehearsed two full days in the presence of product managers who supported him.
Steve spent a lot of time on the slides, developing their design personally. On the last day, one or two complete performances were performed.
If you want to make a good performance, rehearse. Record your rehearsals on video and watch these videos to correct mistakes.
Jobs is dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck. However, this is not a reason to do the same. Jobs did not start dressing like this immediately and when they started Apple at Wozniak, Steve wore a three-piece suit and stood at the exhibition as an exemplary businessman. On the cover of Macworld 2008, he was wearing a brown jacket, a brown tie, and a white shirt.
This person knew what impression the clothes produced and what impression needed to be made in this particular case. For example, when he went to the bank, he wore an expensive suit from Brioni.
Ponder what impression you want to make on the audience and dress appropriately.
PS: After reading the book, I had a desire to make my own presentations and speeches about a healthy lifestyle in the framework of the project "Common Cause" much better. Moreover, I had a clear understanding of how this can be done. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the original source and try to apply the Jobs method in practice.
I wish you happiness!
Why this article? Yes, this article does not eliminate the need to read the original source. But personally, I need it as a summary: when I once again prepare for a public speech, I will return to this article and quickly remember what is written in the book.
So let's get started.
')
1. Use analog environment for planning
Jobs wrote the script on paper before taking on digital tools. He worked closely with every detail, including the preparation of descriptive subtitles, slides, demos, and even with stage lighting. Most of the best presentation designers recommend starting with a paper sheet.
Bullets (bullets) kill
When you launch Power Point for you, two fields for the title and subtitle are immediately marked. This creates a desire to write a bunch of unnecessary text. In addition, Power Point provokes you to use numbered or bulleted lists. But Jobs has no lists in any presentation! Take a piece of paper or a napkin or stand at the marker board and start thinking about the script.
Nine common elements of compelling scenarios:
- Short and juicy title <= 140 characters. For example: "Today, Apple invented the phone."
- Incendiary statement. "I am enthusiastic about this product because ..."
- Three key message ideas. Write down on paper three key ideas that the audience should get. They should be such that people can remember them themselves, without looking in notebooks.
- Metaphors and analogies . “A computer is the equivalent of a bicycle for the brain” or “[iTunes for Windows] is like giving a glass of cold water to a person in hell.”
- Demonstrations. Steve very often himself showed those things that he believed needed to be shown. The product could have dozens of functions, but he chose only a part of them, stood behind the podium and showed how they work.
- Partners. Share the scene with key partners. Jobs had Madonna, Paul Otellini (former CEO of Intel) and even Bill Gates.
- Testimonies of customers or third parties. Successful product launches usually involve several users who have been involved in pre-testing and can vouch for your product.
- Video clips. Jobs often played video clips in his presentations. It could be employees who talked about how they like to work on a new product, or television commercials.
- See, touch, listen. Give food to audials, visuals and kinesthetics: speak, show and let something tangible in the rows.
2. Answer the most important question.
Start with the sensations of your customers and only then proceed to the technology. For example: “Although it is still a full-fledged Macintosh, we aim it to fulfill the main wish of our users - to access the Internet faster and easier. We also intend it for education: it perfectly corresponds to the wishes of its representatives ... We checked all the products available in this market. We found out that they have a lot of common characteristics. The first general characteristic is that they all work incredibly slowly, all of which use outdated processors. Secondly, all of them are equipped with the poorest monitors ... do not have network devices ... are equipped with outdated I / O devices ... All this means that they have the worst performance and their use creates difficulties and problems. This situation has led us to wow-horror! So let me tell you about iMac ... "
Remember that your speech is not about you. People in the audience will ask themselves one question: “How does this concern me personally?”. Answer it soon. Here is an example: “The brand new iPod nano gives music lovers the most that they love on their iPods: double the amount of memory for the same price, incredible work time - 24 hours and a gorgeous aluminum body in five colors.”
3. Create a messianic sense of purpose
Example: "we are here to leave our mark on the universe . " Jobs used this technique when he invited John Sculley to work at Apple. Steve said: “Are you going to spend your whole life selling sweet water or do you want a chance to change this world?” Jobs encourages you to do what you like and this is the secret of his own success. He speaks about his products with genuine enthusiasm and it is contagious. “Work takes up most of your life and the only way to get real pleasure from it is to do what you consider an excellent job. And the only way to do an excellent job is to love what you are doing. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Do not stop .
Destination is an important thing. Millionaire Chris Gardner, who used to be just a homeless person, sleeping with his two-year-old son on the subway, said: “Find what you like most and you’ll go to the sunrise to get up and do what you love.”
In this madness we see the genius
“I think you have to stand out from the crowd to buy an Apple computer. I think those people who buy them have the most creative spirit in the world. These are not the people who just perform other people's tasks. They are trying to change the world. We develop tools specifically for such people. We are going to serve people who have bought our products from the very beginning. Often these people are considered insane. But in this madness we see genius. And it is for such people that we work. ”
Delightful journey
“Apple was my amazing trip. I mean we did some amazing things there. What has tied us up most at Apple is the ability to do things that could change the world. It was very important. We were all very young. The average age of people in the company slightly exceeded twenty-five years. At first, almost no one has yet got a family, and we worked like maniacs. The greatest joy was the feeling that we are creating something as ambitious as, for example, twentieth-century physics, something very important for the world that will live for a long time, something that many people have contributed to and that can help many to other people. The “gain” was very large.
Interestingly, for example, the CEO of Starbucks believes that their mission is not to simply prepare coffee, but to create "third place between home and work."
4. Come up with a tweeter-like headline.
Steve Jobs always made up the headlines and used them consistently. For example, like this: “Today Apple has reinvented the phone again” or “MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world”. Jobs spoke and repeated this heading several times in his presentation. Then they appeared in promotional materials and the same headlines were used by journalists. And really: why trust in inventing a headline to journalists, when you yourself can best think up this headline.
The title lives and plays for a long time, so it is important that it is short: no longer than 140 characters. Then any journalist will be able to publish his article with the same title without any changes. When the iPod came out , the title sounded like this: “1000 songs in your pocket.” The media gladly picked up this headline .
Here are some more examples: “the joy of the Internet, the simplicity of Macintosh”, “the greenest laptop in the industry”, “the most popular music player in the world is even better now”, “Iphone 3G. Two times faster and two times cheaper ”,“ Keynote. When your presentation is really important to you. ”
5. Draw a roadmap
"Today we are presenting three revolutionary products." So begins the speech of Steve Jobs during the presentation of the iPhone in 2007, he said that now he will be presenting not one product, but as many as three: an iPod with touch controls, a mobile phone and a brand new Internet communicator. Then he announced that they were not three separate devices, but one.
Thus, Jobs drew a roadmap: a player, a phone, a communicator, and then followed this map while telling the iPhone, telling first about one, then about the other, and then about the third.
Verbal milestones create a roadmap and help your listeners follow the story. Thanks to these points, which, by the way, should be three (maximum four), the audience will be able to represent where you are now. For example, if you announced three points at the beginning of a speech, and told only two, listeners will demand a story from you about another item.
6. Introduce the antagonist and hero.
You may have an "enemy". Those. some kind of opposite to your product or your company or your ideas. It can be either a competing nasty product, or a company following other principles.
Here's what Steve Jobs says in 1984: “Will the blue giant dominate the entire computer industry?” Was George Orwell right? ”
The hero meets the villain and must defeat him. In Jobs's classic talk, you can see an antagonist (problem) presentation that pulls the audience around the hero (the solution). For example, when Steve introduced the iPhone, at the beginning of the presentation he brought out 4 models of smartphones on the market, which were not so smart. Having considered their shortcomings, he passed to the solution.
Prepare a short presentation for an “elevator presentation” involving your antagonist problem. In thirty seconds you need to answer four questions:
- What are you doing?
- What problem do you solve?
- What makes you different?
- How does this relate to your listeners?
As soon as you learn to talk about your product in 30 seconds, they will become much more interested in them.
Apple products arrive on time to save the day and change the world for the better. That is the message Jobs carries in his speeches. The hero must have a worthy mission, which is not to destroy the villain, but to improve our life.
When Jobs introduced the iPod, at the very beginning he told that music is a part of our life and it surrounds us. However, in the world of portable players there is no leader and no good solutions. There are CD-players (big), flash-players (expensive), HDD-players (heavy and expensive). Against this background, he presents the hero: “iPod. 1000 songs in your pocket. ” The solution is simple and free from technical jargon. Jobs represents the benefits of a new product based on user needs.
7. Ease of presentation
In Apple products, Jobs ruthlessly removes features and simplifies everything that can be simplified. The same thing happens with the slides that he is preparing. There is nothing superfluous on them. Where most speakers squeeze everything they can into a slide, Steve Jobs removes, removes and removes.
Recently, I was in a comprehensive school at a conference on a healthy lifestyle. Schoolchildren prepared reports and presentations on food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. There I saw an example of a typical speaker with slides. On the slide, a bunch of text + bulleted lists + at least one picture. The speaker reads the text right on the slide. Familiar? A lot of modern “speakers” use slides as a legal cheat sheet and read directly on it, without being embarrassed by their unpreparedness.
Jobs presentations are simple, clear, and have no bulleted lists. He fully knows the text of the speech, remembers the sequence of slides and does not look at the screen at all.
Mac-presentations are dominated by: empty space, photos and pictures, simple words.
8. Put numbers
By themselves, dry numbers and technical data will not give any benefit. If you visualize them, there will definitely be a benefit. For example, instead of the information that the first iPod had a 5-gigabyte hard drive, Steve Jobs said: “You have 1000 songs in your pocket.” Or this: “30 GB of memory is enough to store 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos, or 75 hours of video.”
The more complex the idea, the more important it is to use rhetorical techniques to facilitate understanding.
9. Use “surprisingly lively words.”
Jobs in his presentations often said something like: “he is surprisingly quick” (about an iPhone), “we made the icons on the screen so beautiful that you want to lick them”.
The words that Jobs chose for his speeches are simple (free from jargon), specific (very accurate and short) and emotional (using descriptive additions). Example: “This is a MacBook Air. You can feel how thin it is. He has a full size keyboard. Isn't that amazing? This is how it looks. Great, isn't it? This is the thinnest laptop in the world "... Speaking of the Titanium PowerBook laptop:" I asked you to fasten your seat belts. Now I would like you to be fastened with racing belts over your shoulders. ”
Clear your text, avoid jargon and buzzwords, add descriptive words. Be confident in your product and pass this confidence to the audience, do not hesitate.
10. Share the scene
Human brains require diversity and no one, no matter how good it is, cannot hold the attention of the audience for a long time. Jobs keynote speeches lasted more than an hour and a half and he managed to keep the attention of the audience. How? With the help of variety - demonstrations, video clips and guest speakers. Jobs knows what he doesn’t know and invites, for example, Johnny Quince to talk about a new way of making laptops from a solid aluminum plate.
Jobs invited Apple's key partners and even enemies, while remaining the most "giving" of the speakers. In order for the show to sparkle, all its members must shine.
11. Props
When Johnny Ive and his design team came up with the idea of ​​making a laptop case from a solid metal plate, Jobs, taking a macbook, took the case details and ran them along the rows. He gave the opportunity to enjoy kinestetikam.
In general, Jobs devoted most of his keynote speeches to demonstrations. The demonstrations he did were always interesting, colorful and diluted with jokes. So at the presentation of the iPhone, he made a hooligan call to Starbucks and jokingly ordered 4000 lattes to take out. This caused laughter in the hall.
Make a brief, targeted demonstration. If you can bring someone from your team to the show, do it. Present something for audials for both visuals and kinesthetics.
12. Surprise
Apple products are surprising. At the MacBook Air presentation, Jobs took out a laptop from an email envelope and at that time the room gasped. The same thing happened when in 2007 Steve showed the first iPhone and showed how to scroll the screen with your finger. In 2009, Jobs presented the next Mac and the computer on this presentation in a synthetic digital voice told about himself. People in the hall jumped up and applauded while standing.
Think how you can surprise the audience and create such a moment in your speech, which the audience will remember for several years.
13. Learn to perform on stage.
Get ready to speak and do not read on paper. A dull, monotonous reading of a piece of paper looks awful and lulls the audience. Jobs onstage maintains visual contact, maintains an open posture, and often uses gestures. He controls the tempo, the volume of speech and pauses. Some sentences he says faster, and some slower. Using the usual speed of speech, he noticeably slows it down when he presents the main news or an important idea that students need to memorize.
Watch several of Jobs' speeches and note the tempo, gestures and tone of voice. There is also a good course “Learning to speak in public” from Radislav Gandapas. I recommend to watch it.
14. Rehearse
Jobs rehearsed for hours. Those. many many hours. One of the leaders of Apple said that he once came to the rehearsal and he had to wait four hours until Jobs came down from the stage. Jobs' speeches are the result of many weeks of work, the finest “orchestration” and massive collective work behind the scenes. The iDVD team spent several hundred hours preparing for a five-minute demonstration. Jobs rehearsed two full days in the presence of product managers who supported him.
Steve spent a lot of time on the slides, developing their design personally. On the last day, one or two complete performances were performed.
If you want to make a good performance, rehearse. Record your rehearsals on video and watch these videos to correct mistakes.
15. Dress properly
Jobs is dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck. However, this is not a reason to do the same. Jobs did not start dressing like this immediately and when they started Apple at Wozniak, Steve wore a three-piece suit and stood at the exhibition as an exemplary businessman. On the cover of Macworld 2008, he was wearing a brown jacket, a brown tie, and a white shirt.
This person knew what impression the clothes produced and what impression needed to be made in this particular case. For example, when he went to the bank, he wore an expensive suit from Brioni.
Ponder what impression you want to make on the audience and dress appropriately.
PS: After reading the book, I had a desire to make my own presentations and speeches about a healthy lifestyle in the framework of the project "Common Cause" much better. Moreover, I had a clear understanding of how this can be done. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the original source and try to apply the Jobs method in practice.
I wish you happiness!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291550/
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