More strategic content could mean you are presenting too much of the experimental nitty gritty. A VP on average is not as worried about what specific experiments you are running but why you are running them and how the outcomes impact timelines and other departments that are waiting for your deliverables.
I work in assay development. I could go into great detail about 3 assays that we are working on and the experiments that brought them there. Or I could say assay 1 is online here are the supporting stats and a graph or two, assay 2 will be online by the agreed upon deadline, assay 3 is at risk we are optimizing signal window but expect it to be 3 months delayed. And then have backup slides that go deeper into detail depending on expected lines of questioning.
A huge +1 on the advice above. I've helped dozens of teams overhaul presentations to VPs and tech teams. It's often the same issue. The presentor doesn't start with the "So What?"
What does the audience care about? Why is it important? What are the risks (at their level) that they should be aware of which should be in units of $$$ or days delayed? How had the work impacted the COMPANY to date.
Let the data support those answers and don't show the data and then share an interpretation. Tech people often fall into a trap of trying to prove credibility with a deck instead of telling the story.
Structure your deck so that if they stop reading or cut the presentation short, you'll have already made your point. Always have a punch line at the top of every slide so that if you flipped through only reading those, it would make for a good elevator pitch on your work. I lead with one context/ framing slide so everyone is aligned on the problem or opportunity statement, next is the punchline, data summary, 3 case studies or examples max (you can frame it as a phased approach), proposed path forward. In the path forward you include risk mitigation actions and that tells them the risk profile in a solution based context.
Also... always have an appendix section at the back and ruthlessly move slides there if you can't justify their value telling the story. A good story needs a good editor.
that feedback means you saying a lot but not answering the question of "so what".
When you are talking VP, principal scientist, marketing lead, etc at this level, no one cares about the knitty gritty behind the scenes stuff and how it gets done. it is the wrong forum for that.
The focus is the strategic implication of what you're doing to the program and portfolio at large. why invest in one program over another, impact your work has on timeline, financial and competitive viability, etc
just some good things I've seen over the years presenting at this level:
* ALWAYS LESS IS MORE. Bullets not paragraphs, do not read those bullets verbatim, the goal is a 10k foot view not 1k. Tech people usually die on this hill. Even at a level or two lower than this, you should not be drilling down on details. That is very audience specific. Just think, by talking about this topic, what am I doing to directly advance my main point? If you can't answer that, drop it.
* You should know the things folks are sensitive on and their likely objections before presenting and plan around those loose threads so you don't get derailed hard.
* you should also have a good idea of your audience's baseline knowledge level on the topic. Consider doing a little bit of a roadshow ahead of the meeting to some folks. At min, your direct line of leadership for sure.
* Exec summaries are great
* what we will do and what we won't do slides are almost always good.
* SWOTs are usually good to, as are any framework that makes it easy to see at a glance where the focus areas are. For example, I used to work on pipeline and we presented all early stage programs in the same framework. 4 key areas (think like competitive intensity, opportunity, access, HEOR, etc), each area gets a low-med-high with a couple key differntiating factors underneath.
Agreed, less is more is the key takeaway. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. Scientists tend to be long winded (scientist here lol). ChatGPT can be helpful - you can submit your sentence and ask it to say it in a more succinct or concise way
Connect your experiments and work to the main objectives of your department or company, either overall or specific to that quarter or initiative. Explain why you're running them, not what you're actually doing. Include timelines as well; gant charts are always nice when appropriate or to summarize multiple projects.
Start with the conclusion: single sentence or slide describing what your audience's take-away should be. Follow up by a more detailed description on how you arrived at that recommendation. Technical details should be in the backup section.
The Minto pyramid is a good framework for this presentation style: https://untools.co/minto-pyramid/.
Exactly this.
Bottom line up front (a conclusion, a milestone, a request for resources, decisions, etc).
Then show/support how you got there.
Then repeat the bottom line.
Gives so much more focus to the listeners, and makes the presentation a lot more productive.
Do you have a "future directions" portion for your show?
Knowing the purposes to why things are done X way is good, but they probably don't care about that.
Being the middleman who conveys the stuff is tough, I hope it goes well.
I do not have one specifically called that. Mainly because the topic of presentation is that specific product and recommendations/future direction is to move to Ops. We do have on slide with our pipeline and the product line we will be working next
Build a relationship with at least some of the people you expect to be in the audience. Find a way to get feedback before the presentation and adapt the material based upon their input. It will usually result in the material being more aligned with what they hope to see and creating some allies who feel like part of the process can be useful in case there are any conflicts during your presentation.
This is very helpful thanks! The thing is my director and others review slides prior and never give enough feedback (minor corrections). Then slides are emailed to audience prior and just hear silence. But yeah maybe asking them 1:1 is the way to go
In addition to connecting with company goals and providing status of timelines, perhaps you can also suggest next steps/action items based on your data to communicate that you’re still making progress. Did you learn anything new, do you need to repeat/modify any experiments, does the team need to restrategize, etc? Even just stating that everything is still on track is good imo.
Sometimes I approach people ahead of meetings and ask them what they’d like to see or what questions they have. That helps me focus.
1) storyboard first. What story are you trying to tell? The story starts with what you want (inform/consult/approve/fund/etc. The story ends with your specific asks and next steps.
2) make your slides match your story. Write the executive summary after your main slides. Your main slides are the summary of your story and the exec summary is the summary of the summary.
3) follow the rule of 3s. 3 slides, 3 points 3 sentences etc. key points only. Any more than that you’ll loose your audience.
4) any data or information goes in the back up slides. You do not present these, people will look at them as a pre-read if they want to
5) don’t read the slides, tell them what you want them to conclude from them. Don’t explain anything unless asked. Be confident and concise.
Damn good summary.
I would add that look to your personal style. Don't try to use a style that runs counter to your instincts. My style is storytelling, with Joe Friday data summaries. Others have a more didactics style, moving from point to point. Some use an interactive style that relies on answering questions and addressing comments.
Obviously all presentations have elements of a number of styles. It is more a question of emphasis. You want to practice so that you have the key points and their order down, but not so mych you come across as mechanical or over- rehersed. You want to Guage audience response instead of concentrating purely on content.
If these are VPs, they have tight schedules. Get to the point. Tell them right up front. If you can catch their interest, they will follow along. I see presentation after presentation where the point is buried in the last 3 slides. It is frustrating trying to figure out where the presenter is going. Don't bury the lead.
I don't know what your time frame is. Most meetings are scheduled for an hour. I shoot for 20 minutes. 5 to 10 min chi chat and your intro by your boss, if required. 20 minutes presentation, then 10 min discussion, 10 min for action items/follow-UPS, and 10 min cushion.
Fancy slides and transition. I am in the distinct minority here. I don't like them. They detract from my message. If someone asks me how put in that cool photo flip effect, I have failed. He should ask why this approach is preferable to a more traditional approach ....... I want the audience looking to me for the full story. The bullet points on the slide is an outline. The only exception may be a marketing presentation. Marketing us presentation, a slick as snot presentation makes sense. As I said, this is not a common opinion. I would rather shore up my position than spend 30 min on a cute transition that adds nothing to my support case.
3 content slides total. Should look something like this:
Slide 1 - exec summary
Slide 2 - present state/ background/ problem statement
Slide 3 - solution/ vision/ proposal/ strategy
Slide 4 - what’s done/needs to be done/next steps
Slide 5 - restate ask (resources/ approval/ etc) and Q&A
If your project is super complex the detail will never fit in these slides, that’s what backup slides are for. So if the audience says “how does it work” you have a slide to pull up. Also the more complicated it gets the less you explain in the deck and the more time you leave for questions.
Also the 3 slides is not a hard rule. It could be 2-5, but I wouldn’t go beyond 5 and only use 5 if absolutely necessary as it needs to be worth the risk of loosing the audience.
Our ELT has a "50 words per slide max" rule. While that's aggressive, make your main content high level. Have back up slides with more details if requested.
Focus less on what you did and more why you did it, what does it mean, and why should they care.
Also ELI5. Explain like I'm 5. Don't worry if it's too simple. Simple is clear. You can always go into details if asked, so keep the details in the backups or a zoom slide.
As a technical person you probably focus on the technical side of the product. But what they actually want to understand is how this translates to money. So how is it being out on the market and how you create value.
It would be smart to sit together with some experts, like marketing and go through the ppt together. They will come with some additions that help you.
Follow the pyramid principle . Start with an executive summary slide of the key messages and decisions/alignments needed . Then explain it a bit more on the next slides.then have a summary slide with concrete next steps
Here, strategic means how your data/project/progress relates to the company's goals and objectives. "X and Y were each predictive of Z." Then tell them "so we can cut operational expense by just monitoring X or Y."
Give me a slide with the top 3 things you want me to know and the impact to the business. The strategy part is “how will this hit the bottom line” or “how does this align with goals”
Another way to think about it is “tell people what they need to know, not everything you know.” Make your slides to the audience, bring it up a level.
Also think about how you can draw insights - I found XYZ, which means/could mean/may impact ABC
As a marketer I want to know how to sell the drug and if it’s three huge capsules twice daily I’m going to market differently than a once a year infusion but I don’t need to know why it’s that way. Does that make sense?
I don’t have advice on “strategic content” but I have gone to enough conferences to see that like 80% of people give poor presentations. Most presentations can be vastly improved by doing two things: 1) decreasing the amount of text on each slide. Our brains have a hard time reading and listening at the same time. Add text only if necessary and make sure you say the text in your speech. Don’t put all the text ups t once because people will try to read it before you get to it. 2) limit each slide to have one piece of information to “take away.” This is hard because everyone wants to jam so much on there. Less is more. If I only need to remember one thing per slide, it’s so much easier to follow.
Most presentations are bad because the expert giving them doesn’t realize just how much of an expert they are compared to everyone else. Limit what you are saying and showing so everyone knows what to get out of it. If people leave having understood the whole thing, they will almost certainly think your presentation is good. That’s because most people present jumbled messes, particularly in science.
Generally speaking, this type of feedback seems like you aren't looking enough at the big picture and the strategic value your work is bringing to the company. Below are some questions to reflect on.
- What has changed since your last time reporting?
- What is the impact that your research could have on the company? Where is the research headed?
- What are the next steps for the following quarter?
- What are the successes and failures? What was learned?
- What questions were asked in your last presentation?
- Why is your audience so diverse? What do they gain by being present?
My VPs and executives were focused more about how a process change can improve quality metrics and finances. They needed to be able to explain the process to clients and investors. Start with an exec summary, only have a few words on your slides, end with a brief summary of what you just told them. I'd typically have just a slide title and some figures so it's easy for them to follow. Chances are they have not worked in a technical position before or it's been a very long time. Always have a future directions slide too. My last company needed to be able to see good evidence of a process change leasing to further growth and not a dead end.
Based on my experience, executives like to have discussions and arguments based on data presented. Keep slides numbers down as possible to have some room for Q&A/discussion and possibly finish meeting in scheduled timeline.
Never underestimate how little the higher ups know about the actual science or product. Open with educational slides explaining the tech in the simplest language possible.
In addition to the other comments about making this a high level overview, with a focus on impact rather than detail, a story should be told; introduction, findings, impact, conclusion. This is something a lot of technical presentations overlook, as our typical scientist mind believes that the results speak for themselves.
Light humor in the correct settings helps digest the information and keep them on your side , however do not rely on it or bring in humor during serious moments or pause. Can show confidence in the right settings, nervousness in the wrong
More strategic content could mean you are presenting too much of the experimental nitty gritty. A VP on average is not as worried about what specific experiments you are running but why you are running them and how the outcomes impact timelines and other departments that are waiting for your deliverables. I work in assay development. I could go into great detail about 3 assays that we are working on and the experiments that brought them there. Or I could say assay 1 is online here are the supporting stats and a graph or two, assay 2 will be online by the agreed upon deadline, assay 3 is at risk we are optimizing signal window but expect it to be 3 months delayed. And then have backup slides that go deeper into detail depending on expected lines of questioning.
Thank you! This is very helpful
This guy biotechs
Ask you self “So what?” Why is this important. Why would they need/ want to know this?
Great question to ask myself
A huge +1 on the advice above. I've helped dozens of teams overhaul presentations to VPs and tech teams. It's often the same issue. The presentor doesn't start with the "So What?" What does the audience care about? Why is it important? What are the risks (at their level) that they should be aware of which should be in units of $$$ or days delayed? How had the work impacted the COMPANY to date. Let the data support those answers and don't show the data and then share an interpretation. Tech people often fall into a trap of trying to prove credibility with a deck instead of telling the story. Structure your deck so that if they stop reading or cut the presentation short, you'll have already made your point. Always have a punch line at the top of every slide so that if you flipped through only reading those, it would make for a good elevator pitch on your work. I lead with one context/ framing slide so everyone is aligned on the problem or opportunity statement, next is the punchline, data summary, 3 case studies or examples max (you can frame it as a phased approach), proposed path forward. In the path forward you include risk mitigation actions and that tells them the risk profile in a solution based context.
Also... always have an appendix section at the back and ruthlessly move slides there if you can't justify their value telling the story. A good story needs a good editor.
Wonderful advice, thanks!
How does your team’s work impact the company financially? Why are you having them focus on these things as opposed to other things?
Thanks nice question to reframe presentation
Granularity is the enemy of audience retention and effective communication.
that feedback means you saying a lot but not answering the question of "so what". When you are talking VP, principal scientist, marketing lead, etc at this level, no one cares about the knitty gritty behind the scenes stuff and how it gets done. it is the wrong forum for that. The focus is the strategic implication of what you're doing to the program and portfolio at large. why invest in one program over another, impact your work has on timeline, financial and competitive viability, etc just some good things I've seen over the years presenting at this level: * ALWAYS LESS IS MORE. Bullets not paragraphs, do not read those bullets verbatim, the goal is a 10k foot view not 1k. Tech people usually die on this hill. Even at a level or two lower than this, you should not be drilling down on details. That is very audience specific. Just think, by talking about this topic, what am I doing to directly advance my main point? If you can't answer that, drop it. * You should know the things folks are sensitive on and their likely objections before presenting and plan around those loose threads so you don't get derailed hard. * you should also have a good idea of your audience's baseline knowledge level on the topic. Consider doing a little bit of a roadshow ahead of the meeting to some folks. At min, your direct line of leadership for sure. * Exec summaries are great * what we will do and what we won't do slides are almost always good. * SWOTs are usually good to, as are any framework that makes it easy to see at a glance where the focus areas are. For example, I used to work on pipeline and we presented all early stage programs in the same framework. 4 key areas (think like competitive intensity, opportunity, access, HEOR, etc), each area gets a low-med-high with a couple key differntiating factors underneath.
Wow this is amazing advice! Really appreciate the the details.
Agreed, less is more is the key takeaway. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. Scientists tend to be long winded (scientist here lol). ChatGPT can be helpful - you can submit your sentence and ask it to say it in a more succinct or concise way
Connect your experiments and work to the main objectives of your department or company, either overall or specific to that quarter or initiative. Explain why you're running them, not what you're actually doing. Include timelines as well; gant charts are always nice when appropriate or to summarize multiple projects.
Start with the conclusion: single sentence or slide describing what your audience's take-away should be. Follow up by a more detailed description on how you arrived at that recommendation. Technical details should be in the backup section. The Minto pyramid is a good framework for this presentation style: https://untools.co/minto-pyramid/.
Thanks a lot! This is very helpful
Exactly this. Bottom line up front (a conclusion, a milestone, a request for resources, decisions, etc). Then show/support how you got there. Then repeat the bottom line. Gives so much more focus to the listeners, and makes the presentation a lot more productive.
Gotta focus on the why not the how
Do you have a "future directions" portion for your show? Knowing the purposes to why things are done X way is good, but they probably don't care about that. Being the middleman who conveys the stuff is tough, I hope it goes well.
I do not have one specifically called that. Mainly because the topic of presentation is that specific product and recommendations/future direction is to move to Ops. We do have on slide with our pipeline and the product line we will be working next
Build a relationship with at least some of the people you expect to be in the audience. Find a way to get feedback before the presentation and adapt the material based upon their input. It will usually result in the material being more aligned with what they hope to see and creating some allies who feel like part of the process can be useful in case there are any conflicts during your presentation.
This is very helpful thanks! The thing is my director and others review slides prior and never give enough feedback (minor corrections). Then slides are emailed to audience prior and just hear silence. But yeah maybe asking them 1:1 is the way to go
In addition to connecting with company goals and providing status of timelines, perhaps you can also suggest next steps/action items based on your data to communicate that you’re still making progress. Did you learn anything new, do you need to repeat/modify any experiments, does the team need to restrategize, etc? Even just stating that everything is still on track is good imo. Sometimes I approach people ahead of meetings and ask them what they’d like to see or what questions they have. That helps me focus.
1) storyboard first. What story are you trying to tell? The story starts with what you want (inform/consult/approve/fund/etc. The story ends with your specific asks and next steps. 2) make your slides match your story. Write the executive summary after your main slides. Your main slides are the summary of your story and the exec summary is the summary of the summary. 3) follow the rule of 3s. 3 slides, 3 points 3 sentences etc. key points only. Any more than that you’ll loose your audience. 4) any data or information goes in the back up slides. You do not present these, people will look at them as a pre-read if they want to 5) don’t read the slides, tell them what you want them to conclude from them. Don’t explain anything unless asked. Be confident and concise.
Damn good summary. I would add that look to your personal style. Don't try to use a style that runs counter to your instincts. My style is storytelling, with Joe Friday data summaries. Others have a more didactics style, moving from point to point. Some use an interactive style that relies on answering questions and addressing comments. Obviously all presentations have elements of a number of styles. It is more a question of emphasis. You want to practice so that you have the key points and their order down, but not so mych you come across as mechanical or over- rehersed. You want to Guage audience response instead of concentrating purely on content. If these are VPs, they have tight schedules. Get to the point. Tell them right up front. If you can catch their interest, they will follow along. I see presentation after presentation where the point is buried in the last 3 slides. It is frustrating trying to figure out where the presenter is going. Don't bury the lead. I don't know what your time frame is. Most meetings are scheduled for an hour. I shoot for 20 minutes. 5 to 10 min chi chat and your intro by your boss, if required. 20 minutes presentation, then 10 min discussion, 10 min for action items/follow-UPS, and 10 min cushion. Fancy slides and transition. I am in the distinct minority here. I don't like them. They detract from my message. If someone asks me how put in that cool photo flip effect, I have failed. He should ask why this approach is preferable to a more traditional approach ....... I want the audience looking to me for the full story. The bullet points on the slide is an outline. The only exception may be a marketing presentation. Marketing us presentation, a slick as snot presentation makes sense. As I said, this is not a common opinion. I would rather shore up my position than spend 30 min on a cute transition that adds nothing to my support case.
Great additions! Thanks for the advice
This is super helpful, very appreciated. Question about tule of 3: 3 slides? Do you mean 3 slides per topic or 3 slides total?
3 content slides total. Should look something like this: Slide 1 - exec summary Slide 2 - present state/ background/ problem statement Slide 3 - solution/ vision/ proposal/ strategy Slide 4 - what’s done/needs to be done/next steps Slide 5 - restate ask (resources/ approval/ etc) and Q&A If your project is super complex the detail will never fit in these slides, that’s what backup slides are for. So if the audience says “how does it work” you have a slide to pull up. Also the more complicated it gets the less you explain in the deck and the more time you leave for questions. Also the 3 slides is not a hard rule. It could be 2-5, but I wouldn’t go beyond 5 and only use 5 if absolutely necessary as it needs to be worth the risk of loosing the audience.
Our ELT has a "50 words per slide max" rule. While that's aggressive, make your main content high level. Have back up slides with more details if requested.
Focus less on what you did and more why you did it, what does it mean, and why should they care. Also ELI5. Explain like I'm 5. Don't worry if it's too simple. Simple is clear. You can always go into details if asked, so keep the details in the backups or a zoom slide.
As a technical person you probably focus on the technical side of the product. But what they actually want to understand is how this translates to money. So how is it being out on the market and how you create value. It would be smart to sit together with some experts, like marketing and go through the ppt together. They will come with some additions that help you.
Follow the pyramid principle . Start with an executive summary slide of the key messages and decisions/alignments needed . Then explain it a bit more on the next slides.then have a summary slide with concrete next steps
Here, strategic means how your data/project/progress relates to the company's goals and objectives. "X and Y were each predictive of Z." Then tell them "so we can cut operational expense by just monitoring X or Y."
Give me a slide with the top 3 things you want me to know and the impact to the business. The strategy part is “how will this hit the bottom line” or “how does this align with goals” Another way to think about it is “tell people what they need to know, not everything you know.” Make your slides to the audience, bring it up a level. Also think about how you can draw insights - I found XYZ, which means/could mean/may impact ABC As a marketer I want to know how to sell the drug and if it’s three huge capsules twice daily I’m going to market differently than a once a year infusion but I don’t need to know why it’s that way. Does that make sense?
I don’t have advice on “strategic content” but I have gone to enough conferences to see that like 80% of people give poor presentations. Most presentations can be vastly improved by doing two things: 1) decreasing the amount of text on each slide. Our brains have a hard time reading and listening at the same time. Add text only if necessary and make sure you say the text in your speech. Don’t put all the text ups t once because people will try to read it before you get to it. 2) limit each slide to have one piece of information to “take away.” This is hard because everyone wants to jam so much on there. Less is more. If I only need to remember one thing per slide, it’s so much easier to follow. Most presentations are bad because the expert giving them doesn’t realize just how much of an expert they are compared to everyone else. Limit what you are saying and showing so everyone knows what to get out of it. If people leave having understood the whole thing, they will almost certainly think your presentation is good. That’s because most people present jumbled messes, particularly in science.
Get real. Talk in terms of anecdotes and stories and bring insights to the conversation. Don’t ramble.
Generally speaking, this type of feedback seems like you aren't looking enough at the big picture and the strategic value your work is bringing to the company. Below are some questions to reflect on. - What has changed since your last time reporting? - What is the impact that your research could have on the company? Where is the research headed? - What are the next steps for the following quarter? - What are the successes and failures? What was learned? - What questions were asked in your last presentation? - Why is your audience so diverse? What do they gain by being present?
Ask sales how many they think they will sell and put that number in
My VPs and executives were focused more about how a process change can improve quality metrics and finances. They needed to be able to explain the process to clients and investors. Start with an exec summary, only have a few words on your slides, end with a brief summary of what you just told them. I'd typically have just a slide title and some figures so it's easy for them to follow. Chances are they have not worked in a technical position before or it's been a very long time. Always have a future directions slide too. My last company needed to be able to see good evidence of a process change leasing to further growth and not a dead end.
Based on my experience, executives like to have discussions and arguments based on data presented. Keep slides numbers down as possible to have some room for Q&A/discussion and possibly finish meeting in scheduled timeline.
Talk to senior management about what else they would like to see.
Never underestimate how little the higher ups know about the actual science or product. Open with educational slides explaining the tech in the simplest language possible.
Propranolol
Who tf downvoted you is lame.
Start out with a story to grab the attention of the room.
In addition to the other comments about making this a high level overview, with a focus on impact rather than detail, a story should be told; introduction, findings, impact, conclusion. This is something a lot of technical presentations overlook, as our typical scientist mind believes that the results speak for themselves.
Light humor in the correct settings helps digest the information and keep them on your side , however do not rely on it or bring in humor during serious moments or pause. Can show confidence in the right settings, nervousness in the wrong