Power Presentations for Berkeley-Columbia MBAs (2007)

Best practices for creating impactful presentations. I gave this talk to several years of Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA students in the mid-2000s.

Transcript

1. Power Presentations for Berkeley-Columbia MBAs Andrew Randall October 12, 2007
2. Confession: I Was a PowerPoint Junkie §  My PowerPoints used to be full of §  Text §  14 point font, to squeeze in as much information as possible onto each slide. §  I would frequently use full sentences so I wouldn’t forget what I wanted to say. §  Detailed diagrams §  Cheesy clip-art §  Cool animations §  I was not alone: they were just like those of §  My colleagues §  Almost everyone else in the entire world §  Then I saw a presentation by Steve Jobs and started to read a bit more about the theory behind good (and bad) presentations §  Apparently, this might not be the only way to do things “PowerPoint has allowed an endless expanse of dimwit ideas to be dressed up with graphical respectability” – Wall Street Journal, 6/20/07
3. “PowerPoint is like an outdoor light that attracts moths, and then destroys them…” – Paul LeRoux & Peg Corwin, Visual Selling
5. PowerPoint: Killer App? T U E S D A Y , A U G U S T 3 0 , 2 0 0 5 By Ruth Marcus Did PowerPoint make the space shuttle crash? Could it doom another mission? Preposterous as this may sound, the ubiquitous Microsoft "presentation software" has twice been singled out for special criticism by task forces reviewing the space shuttle disaster. Perhaps I've sat through too many PowerPoint presentations lately, but I think the trouble with these critics is that they don't go far enough: The software may be as much of a mind-numbing menace to those of us who intend to remain earthbound as it is to astronauts. A17
6. “The Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that the distinctive cognitive style of PowerPoint reinforced the hierarchical filtering and biases of the NASA bureaucracy”
7. Substance Style Specifics Structure Sizzle Most Important Least Important
8. “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof must one remain silent” – Wittgenstein Substance
9. Structure Content for Stickiness Substance Structure
10. “Good ideas often have a hard time succeeding in the world” Think: SUCCESs
17. Use the Slide Sorter View as Your Storyboard
18. Style: Strive for Simplicity Substance Structure Style
24. Track Record of Successful Transitions §  680x0 to PowerPC (1994 – 1996) §  Radical new RISC architecture §  Team did a great job (even though I wasn’t here!) §  Successfully migrated entire product line in less than 3 years §  Mac OS 9 to Max OS X (2001 – 2003) §  “Brain transplant” §  Classic mode emulation for back-compatibility enabled smooth transition §  Combined Mac simplicity with rock-solid UNIX operating system – the most advanced operating system on the planet §  World’s most successful new operating system introduction – 10 million users by 2004 §  Now we’re migrating to Intel processor architecture §  Great performance and power consumption §  Will enable us to deliver more insanely great products §  Set for success – proven we can do this before §  In fact, we’ve been running OS X on Intel internally for some time!
26. Typography (Fonts) Simple Elegant Sans  Serif   Different Appropriate  
27. Guy Kawasaki’s Font Size Rule Minimum font size Age of oldest audience member ½ = ×
28. Carefully Chosen Words and Images Promote Understanding Substance Structure Style Specifics
30. Readers: 230 – 800 words per minute • This is my first text bullet and it’s very interesting • It’s even got a sub-bullet • This is my second bullet and it adds a new thought • This is the last bullet on this slide (phew, I kept it short!) • This is my first text bullet and it’s very interesting • It’s even got a sub-bullet • This is my second bullet and it adds a new thought • This is the last bullet on this slide (phew, I kept it short!) Speakers: 160 words per minute Your Audience Can Read Faster Than You Can Talk
31. Cognitive Science Provides Theoretical Support: The Modality Principle Visual Verbal
32. Bad Reasons for Verbose Slides “ I’m giving them as handouts to refer to later” “ I won’t remember what to say” “ My audience needs all the details on the slide” “ My company always does PowerPoint this way”
33. Select salient, strong, quality images
39. If the design should be as simple as possible, why add images at all?
40. Picture Superiority Effect 8.6 11.2 12.4 Words Pictures Words + Pictures K. Mills & H. McMullan, A Study Of Short-term Memory Recall Of Pictures, Words, And Pictures And Words Presented Together, 2006
41. “When emotions are considered above everything else, don't be afraid to add more ornament.” – John Maeda (MIT Media Lab)
42. According to the UN, more than a billion people do not have access to clean water
43. “The goal of making messages ‘emotional’ is to make people care.”
44. Great Image Sources iStockphoto Fotalia Shutterstock Jupiter Images
45. Strive for Subtle Sizzle Substance Structure Style Specifics Sizzle
46. Tip #1 – “Smoked Glass” Overlay
47. 68% of Seniors Find Love Online 68% of Seniors Find Love Online
48. Tip #1 – “Smoked Glass” Overlay Rectangle shape Format " AutoShape §  50% black fill §  No border White text
49. Tip #2 – Image Fade
50. Overall Impressions • Generally positive • Building design connects audience with modern art • Facility poorly maintained • Staff does not appear to understand mission
51. Tip #2 – Image Fade Overlay rectangle shape Format " AutoShape §  Fill Effects §  Background color §  From 0% to 100% transparency Adjust size to image
52. Tip #3 – Photo “Objects” Can purchase online (e.g. photoobjects.net) “Set transparent color” on picture toolbar May need to edit/crop first in Photoshop
53. Tip #4 – Formatting Charts 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
54. Tip #4 – Formatting Charts 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
55. Tip #4 – Formatting Charts 3D vs. subtle 2D shading Explore options Minimize ink (Tufte)
56. Do You Even Need Axes? 20 27 40 64 1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
57. Treat Animations Like …
58. Entry / exit Motion Emphasis Transitions
59. Entry / exit Motion Emphasis Transitions
60. Rel ate
61. Copyright © 2007 MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection • Proprietary and Confidential • All Rights Reserved. 61 MG3510: Industry-Leading Hardware Design "  Compact form factor "  Low power (1500W), high capacity cooling "  2 x 6:1 redundant universal card slots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 17” 12U 17.2”
62. Copyright © 2007 MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection • Proprietary and Confidential • All Rights Reserved. 62 MG2510: Same Power, Even More Compact "  Same carrier class design in more compact chassis "  Lower power (800W) "  5:1 card slots 17” 7U 17.2” “The MG2510 establishes a new benchmark for rack-space efficiency” – Current Analysis
63. Copyright © 2007 MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection • Proprietary and Confidential • All Rights Reserved. 63 Universal Gateway Architecture The industry’s only single blade universal gateway Integrated digital signal processors for media server functions on every channel Reduces spares, increases flexibility and scalability
64. Other Mini Tips Keyboard shortcuts, e.g. §  Ctrl-Shift-P §  Ctrl-Shift-F §  Underlined menu letters Draw " Align or Distribute Format " Line Spacing
65. Tools of the Trade Remote pointer NXPowerLite Photoshop
66. Consider Using Keynote “Cinema-quality presentations for everyone”
67. Further Reading + Seth Godin’s “Really Bad PowerPoint: www.ispi.org/pdf/BadPwrpt.pdf
68. Thank You… Now Go Make Beautiful PowerPoints!
69. But You Know It’s Not Over Until The Obligatory Dilbert Appears…
70. Copyright © 2007 Andrew Randall | andrew@krak.org