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
   

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2. @mseckington
   

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3. @mseckington
   

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4. @mseckington
   FOCUS ON
   YOUR AUDIENCE
   

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5. @mseckington
   HOW DO YOU CREATE
   EFFECTIVE TALKS?
   

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6. @mseckington
   EFFECTIVE
   PRODUCTS
   HOW TO DESIGN
   

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7. @mseckington
   DESIGN
   THINKING
   HOW TO APPLY
   

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8. Design thinking
   is a way of thinking deliberately about what
   you’re creating and constantly reacting and
   reflecting on that
   Melinda Seckington
   @mseckington
   

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9. Five phase model of design
   thinking: empathise, define,
   ideate, prototype & test.
   The Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford
   @mseckington
   

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10. EMPATHISE IDEATE PROTOTYPE
    DEFINE TEST
    

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11. EMPATHISE
    @mseckington
    

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12. Understand your
    users and what their
    user needs are
    @mseckington
    

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13. RESEARCH & COLLATE INFO
    ABOUT YOUR TARGET
    AUDIENCE AND TALK CONTEXT
    @mseckington
    

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14. Exercise - Info Collation:
    Collate all the info you have about:
    the audience, the format and the topic
    EMPATHISE
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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18. DEFINE
    @mseckington
    

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19. Analyse observations
    and define core issues.
    @mseckington
    

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20. DEFINE THE DESIRED
    OUTCOMES AND
    THE GOAL OF THE TALK
    @mseckington
    

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21. WHAT IMPACT DO YOU
    WANT ON YOUR AUDIENCE?
    @mseckington
    

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22. Exercise - Think Feel Do:
    Create a Think Feel Do overview.
    What do you want your target audience to
    Think, Feel and Do?
    DEFINE
    

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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?
    

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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?
    

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25. WHAT JOURNEY DO YOU
    WANT TO TAKE YOUR
    AUDIENCE ON?
    @mseckington
    

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26. @mseckington
    Resonate
    Present visual stories that
    transform audiences
    Nancy Duarte
    

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27. WHAT IS
    @mseckington
    WHAT
    COULD BE
    

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28. DEFINE
    What is
    Start state of
    target audience
    Info collation
    What could be
    End state of
    target audience
    Think Feel Do
    

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29. WHAT IS THE MAIN GOAL
    OF YOUR TALK?
    @mseckington
    

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30. Exercise - Goal Statement:
    Write down the one-liner about what the main
    goal of your talk is.
    DEFINE
    

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31. DEFINE
    HOW TO DESIGN
    For people to understand and be
    encouraged to apply design thinking
    to create more effective talks
    

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32. IDEATE
    @mseckington
    

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33. Generate as many ideas
    as possible, then limit
    and choose.
    @mseckington
    

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34. Diverge & converge:
    @mseckington
    diverge converge
    

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35. COLLATE ALL THE IDEAS AND
    POSSIBLE CONTENT
    @mseckington
    

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36. Exercise - Diverge:
    Write down all possible ideas and topics you
    want to cover.
    IDEATE
    Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
    

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37. Exercise - Converge:
    Prioritize, filter and cluster.
    In whichever order works for you.
    IDEATE
    Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
    

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38. Prioritize
    IDEATE
    A B
    C
    D
    E
    A
    B C
    D E
    

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39. Filter
    IDEATE
    A B
    C
    D
    E
    A
    C
    D
    

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40. Cluster
    IDEATE
    A B
    C
    D
    E
    A
    B
    C
    D
    E
    F F
    

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41. PROTOTYPE
    @mseckington
    

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42. Create a scaled-down
    version
    @mseckington
    

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43. PROTOTYPE YOUR
    TALK STRUCTURE
    @mseckington
    

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44. Beginning
    PROTOTYPE
    Middle
    End
    

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45. Beginning
    PROTOTYPE
    Middle
    End What could be End state of target audience
    What is Start state of target audience
    

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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
    

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47. Beginning
    PROTOTYPE
    Middle
    End
    The Hook
    The Summary
    The Main Ideas
    & Journey
    The Goal
    The Kick
    

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48. PROTOTYPE YOUR
    TALK CONTENT
    @mseckington
    

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49. PROTOTYPE
    How to design effective talks
    

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50. TEST
    @mseckington
    

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53. Get feedback
    @mseckington
    

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54. PREPARE YOUR
    FEEDBACK SESSIONS
    @mseckington
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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57. EMPATHISE IDEATE PROTOTYPE
    DEFINE TEST
    

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59. Thanks for listening…
    MELINDA SECKINGTON
    FUTURELEARN
    @mseckington
    @mseckington
    

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