How to present the results of your work in a favorable light

In this article we will talk about the presentations that are created for the story of the work done and the protection of the project before the boss or customer. Such performances are quite common in everyday life. These include most of the presentations on studies, when students defend their projects / coursework / diplomas, presentations of the work done to the customer (this is especially true for service companies) or telling investors about what their funds are spent on. Such presentations are also found in companies, so in the process of preparing such works, you can use all the tips from our previous article .

Make the structure clear

Quite often, the requirements for the structure (at least common) already exist somewhere. For presentations to the customer, they can be contained in the contract, where all the main tasks and stages of work are stated. The structure of student presentations is also often prescribed in various provisions on term papers, diplomas, etc. If such generally accepted documents exist, it is better to follow their structure, because the audience will be able to navigate the presentation fairly easily. This will keep you from hasty questions from the audience and help you answer questions at the end of the presentation faster.
')
If there is no such document, then try to make the structure as logical as possible. The presentation should be a complete story and contain an introduction, main part, culmination and conclusion. In the introduction, you can say a few words about the project team and describe the objectives of the work. The main part reveals the problems that need to be solved. The climax is usually the bulkiest part. It describes the solutions to the problems posed and the results. The conclusion usually contains the main conclusions and prospects for further work.

Quite often the question is raised about the number of speakers in the presentation process (if the work was done in a group). The simplest option seems to me to be delegating this responsibility to a single team member. If there are several speakers, it will be very difficult for them to keep the attention of the audience on one thing. On the other hand, the participation of several people is necessary if there are any specific stages of work that only a specialist in this field can explain. In this case, it is worth thinking first of all about the audience: if there are people there who have sufficient qualifications to understand this specialist, or maybe it will be better to tell about these stages in simple language and without the participation of a specialist, so that everyone can understand. The specialist will be able to answer all the questions about his work at the end of the speech.

Do not overload slides with information.

In most cases, such presentations are held live, i.e. slides play only a supporting role for the person speaking. This entails many nuances on which the readability of slides will depend. If there is too much information, then, firstly, it will be very small and poorly visible, and secondly, the audience will always be able to read the text faster than the speaker does. These factors lead to the absolute uselessness of either the slides or the speaker.

To avoid such a situation is quite simple: you need to leave on the slides only the most important information, which will be concisely convey the basic thoughts of the author or visually reinforce his words. Unlike self-study presentations, such presentation slides may be completely incomprehensible to people who see them without the speaker himself, because they are used in the context of his words.

Even if the slides are not overloaded with information, the viewer will still be able to scan this information faster than the author tells about it. This can lead to wrong conclusions, loss of attention and general extinction of interest in the performance. To prevent such a situation, there is one remarkable technique: the gradual appearance of information. In order not to deal with the animation settings for a long time and not only make things worse, there is a much simpler implementation of this technique. First, a slide is made in its final form, even if it contains a regular bulleted list of five items. Then the slide is copied, a copy is placed in front of this slide and the fifth item is deleted on it. Now, when viewing these slides one after another, it seems that this is one and the same slide, on which the last item just appears. This effect is achieved due to the fact that all other elements of these slides remain in the same places. Similarly, you can do with all the other points to end up with five slides with an increasing amount of information.

Show results visually

In previous articles we have already talked about data visualization and what benefits it brings. For the presentation of the results of the work there are several typical designs that can be visualized. Any visualization should be obvious, so that viewers do not have to understand for a long time what is shown on the slide. For example, icebergs are often used to visualize various problems. The tip of such an iceberg shows obvious problems that lie on the surface, and its underwater part shows less obvious options or causes of these problems. There are a lot of such analogies and you can always think up something simple and clear.

Individual attention is given to process diagrams. In the presentation of the results of the work they are used very often to show the order of actions taken. Such processes can always be described in words, but a variant with a diagram that describes all the main stages and transitions between them looks much more obvious. The appearance of such diagrams is limited only by the author’s imagination, but it is always important to remember that they should be easily perceived by the audience and not be overloaded with elements (if the diagram turns out to be complex and it cannot be simplified in any way, then you can use the technique of gradually appearing elements from the last paragraph for phased story about what is happening on the chart).

In addition to diagrams, photographic workflows are often used. They allow us to show that the team was engaged in serious things, worked hard and gradually moved towards the final result. Photos from the “by-become” series with intermediate photos of the main stages of work look particularly impressive.

Give work value

A very important point of such a presentation are the results you achieved. To create greater value of the work summarize at the end of the presentation all the main findings, even if they have already been mentioned earlier. Look for options for the further development of your work, it is always appreciated. If you have made a project and present it to the customer - consider the additional features that can be applied to this project. This will help keep the client and show your concern for him. If this is a training project presentation - tell us about the possibilities for further research. So you will emphasize your interest in this topic and awareness of this issue.

Show that you put a lot of effort into the presentation. This zeal will be reflected in the opinion of the audience about you and your work. Of course, it is not necessary to say that you have spent a lot of time and effort on preparing for the performance, if it is at a high level - this will be so obvious.

If you have any questions on this topic or on presentations in general, please contact us at Slidary's presentation studio , we will answer all questions and help you to do everything in the best possible way.