This discussion series is an excerpt of my book: The Competence Myth - Why your technical skills are no longer enough and what you can do about it ( based on 7 Steps to an Awesome Technical Presentation)
If you’re a technical professional, then from time to time, you’re probably called upon to make a public presentation, about the technology that you are either using, marketing, supporting, or even advocating. Whatever the circumstance is, because the topic itself deals with technology, then this becomes a technical presentation. Yikes… You know how bad and tedious these presentations can be, and then if the presenter does not have good communication skills, then you know how painful this can be. I’ve been there, and so have you, I’ve sat through technical presentations where I so wished that I could just do a Vulcan mind-meld, get me the information I need, but please spare me this person, and their presentation.. Maybe I could just get the data-sheet?
Because technical presentations often deal with raw data, nitty-gritty analysis, scientific hypothesis, it usually doesn’t lend itself to anything sexy, and fun, and spirited, no, it’s the data. But it does not have to be boring, tedious and mechanical. And neither do you. I teach communication skills for working technical professionals, and the first thing I teach them about making technical presentations, is that the data speaks for itself. It is what it is, if the system can operate at up to 500 Mhz, then 500 MHz it is, and here how you need to pipeline the data path to achieve that clock rate.
It is what it is.
If want to make the data seem like it’s more than what it is, then you should be in marketing. They can use your talents. But as technical professionals, we like the unbiased truth, and if were presenting, then that’s what we want to convey, to the best of our ability.
Even so, it does not have to be, and should not be boring, because although the data speaks for itself, you have the opportunity to bring that information to life, to make interesting and valuable to the audience. You do that by engaging the audience, by connecting with the people listening to you, but demonstrating your energy and enthusiasm about the subject, and by always considering “how does what I have to say, benefit the audience”. That is the starting point for a great presentation, and a awesome technical presentation.
I’m Eric Culverson, author of TCM, why your technical skills are no longer enough and what you can do about it. In this series, I will share with you an excerpt from my overall communication workshop, this excerpt is called the ‘7 Steps to an Awesome Technical Presentation”
If you’ll apply these steps to your preparation, practice and delivery process, you will see immediate and noticeable improvements, but more importantly, your audience will see that, and they will thank you for making your technical presentation as engaging as it was informative.
Tune in next time when we cover the first 3 of the overall 7 steps. You can do this, and your awesome technical presentation begins with the organization of the information itself, so that were we start in the next video.
See you then.
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