The Art of Talk Design

Everywhere you look, stories surround us, and everyone has something that’s worth sharing with others. As speakers, we need to understand how to structure our talks so they can have the best effect on the audiences we are trying to reach. How do you discover the right angle and the right story for a talk? How do you frame your story?

Within tech we know how to approach building a new product: we research our user base, we figure out what and for who we’re trying to create something for and we make sure we constantly iterate on what we’ve come up with. So why aren’t we taking the same approach for our talks?

This talk will examine how to get in the right mindset of examining your talk ideas, and will introduce a framework of how to design and iterate on your talk. It will focus on several exercises and questions to help you create the best talk for the story you’re trying to tell.

Transcript

1. TALK DESIGN Art The of MELINDA SECKINGTON @mseckington
2. @mseckington
3. @mseckington
4. @mseckington FOCUS ON YOUR AUDIENCE
5. @mseckington HOW DO YOU CREATE EFFECTIVE TALKS?
6. @mseckington EFFECTIVE PRODUCTS HOW TO DESIGN
7. @mseckington DESIGN THINKING HOW TO APPLY
8. Design thinking is a way of thinking deliberately about what you’re creating and constantly reacting and reflecting on that Melinda Seckington @mseckington
9. Five phase model of design thinking: empathise, define, ideate, prototype & test. The Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford @mseckington
10. EMPATHISE IDEATE PROTOTYPE DEFINE TEST
11. EMPATHISE @mseckington
12. Understand your users and what their user needs are @mseckington
13. RESEARCH & COLLATE INFO ABOUT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND TALK CONTEXT @mseckington
14. Exercise - Info Collation: Collate all the info you have about: the audience, the format and the topic EMPATHISE
15. Audience: Write down what you know about the event, the organizers, the audience. What is their prior knowledge, and what are they expecting? EMPATHISE
16. Format: Write down the logistical constraints of your talk. How long is the talk slot? Can you do demos? Will you have internet or audio? EMPATHISE
17. Topic: Write down what you already know about the content of the talk. What is the topic/talk title? What is the abstract/ description? What is the key take away? EMPATHISE
18. DEFINE @mseckington
19. Analyse observations and define core issues. @mseckington
20. DEFINE THE DESIRED OUTCOMES AND THE GOAL OF THE TALK @mseckington
21. WHAT IMPACT DO YOU WANT ON YOUR AUDIENCE? @mseckington
22. Exercise - Think Feel Do: Create a Think Feel Do overview. What do you want your target audience to Think, Feel and Do? DEFINE
23. Think What do you want your audience thinking about? What mindset are you trying to change? What will the audience learn? DEFINE Feel How do you want the audience to feel? Inspired to…? Empowered to..? Scared of…? Do What actions do you want the audience to take ? What should they do after the talk?
24. Think What do you want your audience thinking about? What mindset are you trying to change? What will the audience learn? DEFINE Feel How do you want the audience to feel? Inspired to…? Empowered to..? Scared of…? Do What actions do you want the audience to take ? What should they do after the talk?
25. WHAT JOURNEY DO YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR AUDIENCE ON? @mseckington
26. @mseckington Resonate Present visual stories that transform audiences Nancy Duarte
27. WHAT IS @mseckington WHAT COULD BE
28. DEFINE What is Start state of target audience Info collation What could be End state of target audience Think Feel Do
29. WHAT IS THE MAIN GOAL OF YOUR TALK? @mseckington
30. Exercise - Goal Statement: Write down the one-liner about what the main goal of your talk is. DEFINE
31. DEFINE HOW TO DESIGN For people to understand and be encouraged to apply design thinking to create more effective talks
32. IDEATE @mseckington
33. Generate as many ideas as possible, then limit and choose. @mseckington
34. Diverge & converge: @mseckington diverge converge
35. COLLATE ALL THE IDEAS AND POSSIBLE CONTENT @mseckington
36. Exercise - Diverge: Write down all possible ideas and topics you want to cover. IDEATE Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
37. Exercise - Converge: Prioritize, filter and cluster. In whichever order works for you. IDEATE Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
38. Prioritize IDEATE A B C D E A B C D E
39. Filter IDEATE A B C D E A C D
40. Cluster IDEATE A B C D E A B C D E F F
41. PROTOTYPE @mseckington
42. Create a scaled-down version @mseckington
43. PROTOTYPE YOUR TALK STRUCTURE @mseckington
44. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End
45. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End What could be End state of target audience What is Start state of target audience
46. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End The Hook The Summary The Main Ideas & Journey Grab their attention Convince them why they should listen The Goal The Kick Focus on what will bring the audience closer to your goal Recap the main ideas Give them something to remember
47. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End The Hook The Summary The Main Ideas & Journey The Goal The Kick
48. PROTOTYPE YOUR TALK CONTENT @mseckington
49. PROTOTYPE How to design effective talks
50. TEST @mseckington
53. Get feedback @mseckington
54. PREPARE YOUR FEEDBACK SESSIONS @mseckington
55. TEST Exercise - Prepare your feedback givers Explain to them the context of the talk. Who the target audience is, where you’re giving the talk, what the goal and outcomes of the talk should be.
56. TEST Exercise - Feedback questions Think about what do you want feedback on? If there are parts of your talk that you’re not happy with, ask for specific help.
57. EMPATHISE IDEATE PROTOTYPE DEFINE TEST
59. Thanks for listening… MELINDA SECKINGTON FUTURELEARN @mseckington @mseckington