Reminder: my webinar tomorrow
Just a reminder that I will be hosting a webinar as part of Ellen Finkelstein's Outstanding Presentation Workshop tomorrow. Details of the event are here.
Mission statement on slide 2?
Mission statements are supposed to be the ultimate piece of prose: in one sentence you have the entire essence of a company: what you stand for, what your values are, how you treat customers, everything. This is serious stuff. Making jokes about the mission statement is often considered committing sacrilege.
Mission statements often feature on page 2 of a corporate presentation, right after the title slide. Here you are: our company in one sentence.
It takes time to develop a good mission statement. Projects to craft one can take weeks. The entire organization needs to be involved. Words need to be adjusted. Values need to be discussed.
And that is exactly the problem for an external audience. They miss the context of the 3-week project. They miss the background of the debate. They have no idea about that offsite where you discussed your company's values. For someone who reads the mission statement for the first time, it is well, just another sentence with familiar sounding words.
The ultimate example of the Curse of Knowledge.
When I pooh pooh mission statements in presentations I did not mean to make fun about the values of your company. I think mission statements are valuable. Slide 2 of your presentation is just not the right place for them.
Software developers, please fix this
More and more applications will be a platform to deliver presentations, which means more and more applications need to do the following things:
- Have a good full screen mode
- Respond to Logitech and Apple remote controls
- Support dual monitors including slide preview mode, where you can see the upcoming slide on your laptop screen (not on the screen the audience is watching)
Adobe Acrobat does not have preview mode, and does not respond to an Apple remote. Apple Preview only seems to have slide shows with automated page transitions. OK, Preview might not be intended for running presentations, but Adobe at least should build in features that make Acrobat a good alternative to PowerPoint and Keynote for presenting slides.
Tablet devices would be another category. It is easy now to hook up an iPad to an HD screen. Again, presenting slides should be thought of as a required application.
Tablet devices would be another category. It is easy now to hook up an iPad to an HD screen. Again, presenting slides should be thought of as a required application.
What do you think of the new layout?
Google is upgrading the Blogger platform and today I switched on the new Dynamic Views. With the drop down menu at the top left of this page you can play around with a number of viewing options.
Personally, I like the way how the template invites readers to go back to some of my older posts. It comes at a price though, the current template is not very flexible in terms of design. I cannot add a lot of branding, and I do not like the (centered) formatting of the individual posts. Hopefully over time, Google will bring back more options for tweaking.
On balance, I think I will stick with the new format. What do you think?
UPDATE: I reverted back to the old layout, not so much because of the look and feel, but more because some basic functionality was not working (i.e., viewing comments).
Personally, I like the way how the template invites readers to go back to some of my older posts. It comes at a price though, the current template is not very flexible in terms of design. I cannot add a lot of branding, and I do not like the (centered) formatting of the individual posts. Hopefully over time, Google will bring back more options for tweaking.
On balance, I think I will stick with the new format. What do you think?
UPDATE: I reverted back to the old layout, not so much because of the look and feel, but more because some basic functionality was not working (i.e., viewing comments).
Teaching public speaking to the new generation
Wanda Taliaferro contacted me to draw attention to her not-for-profit organization The New Jersey Orators that teaches children aged 7-18 to speak in public with confidence. The organization is also one of 10 global finalists in a Lenovo-sponsored competition that can land them $50,000. If you want, you can vote for them here, by selecting the Building Confidence - One Word at a Time entry.
Dark or light slide background?
A dark or light background for your presentation slides? Dark backgrounds work better for very large stages, where a big bright screen takes away the attention from the speaker. In smaller meeting rooms, a light background work better.
It is very inconvenient to edit and work with 2 masters of the same presentation, it is a lot of work and you always end up with inconsistencies. Presentations with a dark background give less flexibility to work with colors, and are harder to print (there are still audiences that do this, especially when presenting to institutional investors).
So as a result, I recommend sticking to a light background for most business presentations, unless you have a very specific, high-profile event that merits the design of a custom slide deck.
It is very inconvenient to edit and work with 2 masters of the same presentation, it is a lot of work and you always end up with inconsistencies. Presentations with a dark background give less flexibility to work with colors, and are harder to print (there are still audiences that do this, especially when presenting to institutional investors).
So as a result, I recommend sticking to a light background for most business presentations, unless you have a very specific, high-profile event that merits the design of a custom slide deck.
Dilbert on PowerPoint
PowerPoint has become such a core element of corporate culture that it features often in Dilbert comic strips. These one is from yesterday for example:
The full archive of Dilbert is now searchable by keyword, and you can license images for use in your presentations just like a stock photo site. For example, this search shows a whole lot more Dilbert comics on PowerPoint.
The full archive of Dilbert is now searchable by keyword, and you can license images for use in your presentations just like a stock photo site. For example, this search shows a whole lot more Dilbert comics on PowerPoint.
Changing the presentation culture
If you are reading this blog, you are probably already part of the tribe of people that want to change the way the world present ideas to each other. The problem is how to convert the other 99% of your co-workers. I see two routes.
Robust PowerPoint templates. Leaving aside the discussion of what is a beautiful PowerPoint template, and what is not (you know my preference for the white page), and assume that the design has been agreed. Usually, people stop here, but there is important programming work to do afterwards. Setting the fonts and the colors to the right default, removing the standard bullet point opening framework from the slide master, etc. This is a computer programming, not a design job that should make the PowerPoint template “idiot-proof”. This is the technical route.
Low-risk events. It is hard to experiment with a new way of presenting in a high-stakes external presentation (i.e, your next earnings announcement). Instead, pick an internal presentation. Maybe the annual sales conference? Have an employee who is converted to the tribe give his presentation in a new and unusual way. Give unusual restrictions for the slide decks to be used in the internal conference: instead of telling people not to exceed 5 slides, tell them that they are not allowed to use bullet points in their deck. As people get exposed to a different way of presentation, the confidence might be getting stronger for the next generation of people to join your tribe, and bit by bit, take the new presentation culture to external presentations as well.
Robust PowerPoint templates. Leaving aside the discussion of what is a beautiful PowerPoint template, and what is not (you know my preference for the white page), and assume that the design has been agreed. Usually, people stop here, but there is important programming work to do afterwards. Setting the fonts and the colors to the right default, removing the standard bullet point opening framework from the slide master, etc. This is a computer programming, not a design job that should make the PowerPoint template “idiot-proof”. This is the technical route.
Low-risk events. It is hard to experiment with a new way of presenting in a high-stakes external presentation (i.e, your next earnings announcement). Instead, pick an internal presentation. Maybe the annual sales conference? Have an employee who is converted to the tribe give his presentation in a new and unusual way. Give unusual restrictions for the slide decks to be used in the internal conference: instead of telling people not to exceed 5 slides, tell them that they are not allowed to use bullet points in their deck. As people get exposed to a different way of presentation, the confidence might be getting stronger for the next generation of people to join your tribe, and bit by bit, take the new presentation culture to external presentations as well.
Presentation = web site
The new web site of the Acumen Fund is a great example of how presentation and web design is blending. Gone are the navigation menus, environmental statements, and other wasted screen real estate. Instead, the site is a vertical series of visuals that equally could have gone into a presentation.
I often recommend this web site design approach to early-stage start ups. Once you have designed your investor presentation deck, you can simplify slides, take out the confidential ones (financials, pipeline, IP) and you have the ingredients for a great, simple web site, that shows potential investors clicking through to your URL a message that is consistent with your pitch.
By the way, Acumen is doing some great work to tackle poverty. If you are interested, join the community here to find out more.
I often recommend this web site design approach to early-stage start ups. Once you have designed your investor presentation deck, you can simplify slides, take out the confidential ones (financials, pipeline, IP) and you have the ingredients for a great, simple web site, that shows potential investors clicking through to your URL a message that is consistent with your pitch.
By the way, Acumen is doing some great work to tackle poverty. If you are interested, join the community here to find out more.
Compressing images in PowerPoint
PowerPoint files with images can get very large. As soon as a file exceeds 10MB, it becomes difficult to collaborate on it via email. This probably one of the main reasons office collaboration will ultimately go into the cloud, but before that time arrives we need to deal with the current situation.
You can find the standard compression options in the format menu after you have clicked an image. Sometimes, more brutal force is required though. Somehow, if you right click an image in PowerPoint, save it is a JPG, delete it, and then copy paste it back in, the files size has shrunk a lot.
In the heat of CTRL-C, CTRL-V work, PowerPoint sometimes puts in images as bitmaps or PNG files that take up a lot of space. This trick trims them down again.
Be aware that compressing files hurts the quality of the images. So if this is a presentation destined for a huge screen at an important conference, keep the original photos somewhere in a safe place in order to be able to re-construct the full size version once you have agreed on the final document with your team.
You can find the standard compression options in the format menu after you have clicked an image. Sometimes, more brutal force is required though. Somehow, if you right click an image in PowerPoint, save it is a JPG, delete it, and then copy paste it back in, the files size has shrunk a lot.
In the heat of CTRL-C, CTRL-V work, PowerPoint sometimes puts in images as bitmaps or PNG files that take up a lot of space. This trick trims them down again.
Be aware that compressing files hurts the quality of the images. So if this is a presentation destined for a huge screen at an important conference, keep the original photos somewhere in a safe place in order to be able to re-construct the full size version once you have agreed on the final document with your team.
Oops, forgot the sales pitch
Big market disruption, check. Experienced team, check. Company traction, check. Trimmed down the investor pitch deck to 10 minutes, check.
But you forgot one thing: the sales pitch. Yes, this is an investor presentation and not a sales presentation, but still, every pitch to an investor should include an example pitch to a potential customer. The investor needs to get a feel that a customer will actually buy your product. The sales story on the slides is important, but even more important than that: they way you present the slides as a salesman.
But you forgot one thing: the sales pitch. Yes, this is an investor presentation and not a sales presentation, but still, every pitch to an investor should include an example pitch to a potential customer. The investor needs to get a feel that a customer will actually buy your product. The sales story on the slides is important, but even more important than that: they way you present the slides as a salesman.
One word per line
With an elegant font such as Helvetica Neue Medium, breaking a short sentence in one-word lines can create a beautiful effect. Here an example of a poster by Dutch designer Ben Bos.
See how he reduced the space between the lines (looks better with bigger fonts), and did not use capitalization to create a more harmonious composition. I would have left a bit more white space under the text though.
For those who are interested, the poster reminds students to order their school books before the summer holiday. Via AisleOne.
See how he reduced the space between the lines (looks better with bigger fonts), and did not use capitalization to create a more harmonious composition. I would have left a bit more white space under the text though.
For those who are interested, the poster reminds students to order their school books before the summer holiday. Via AisleOne.
Every sentence should matter
I recently made the switch back to literary fiction after it took me around 25 years to overcome the bad memories of high school teachers forcing me to read this genre against my will.
Reading these books showed me just how empty corporate language is. Over the years I have developed a pretty high speed-read rate. Non-fiction books, annual reports, PowerPoint bullets can all be digested in very limited time without missing a beat of the content.
So, when I tried to apply this to literary fiction I was forced to back up. Every sentence actually matters. The world would be a much better place if corporate language stuck to this principle.
Reading these books showed me just how empty corporate language is. Over the years I have developed a pretty high speed-read rate. Non-fiction books, annual reports, PowerPoint bullets can all be digested in very limited time without missing a beat of the content.
So, when I tried to apply this to literary fiction I was forced to back up. Every sentence actually matters. The world would be a much better place if corporate language stuck to this principle.
Disguising bullets in boxes
Fancy frameworks (pentagons, triangels) are bullet slides in disguise. Here is a concept that I recently used to put the 6 most important building blocks of a business on a slide. Keep the text really short.
Speaking in Munich at the end of September
I will be speaking at an investor relations conference in Munich at the end of September. The conference is a closed event, but feel free to contact me if you live/work nearby and would like to discuss a potential project, or just would like to shake hands and say hello.
A better slide 1 of your presentation
The cover page of your presentation is important: it will be sitting on the projector for a long time as the audience comes into the room, and even more important: it determines how many people will open your deck on online presentation sharing platforms such as SlideShare.
Presentation designers (including me) still have lots to learn from book cover designers. I enjoyed browsing through this book: The Best of Cover Design: Books, Magazines, Catalogs, and More (affiliate link). It reminded me of all this design options I have in PowerPoint that I actually do not use at all for cover slide design.
There is some irony though. The introduction of the book states that the cover designs presented in the book are proof that print media is here to stay forever. I disagree, we digital designers are learning to bring the quality of digital design up to the same standard as print.
Presentation designers (including me) still have lots to learn from book cover designers. I enjoyed browsing through this book: The Best of Cover Design: Books, Magazines, Catalogs, and More (affiliate link). It reminded me of all this design options I have in PowerPoint that I actually do not use at all for cover slide design.
There is some irony though. The introduction of the book states that the cover designs presented in the book are proof that print media is here to stay forever. I disagree, we digital designers are learning to bring the quality of digital design up to the same standard as print.
Cliché stock compositions
On stock photo sites, many photographers and illustrators try to do the slide design work for you and create ready-made compositions. Often, they are not very good.
The one below for example. It requires a lot of technical skill to make it, but somehow the colors and the look and feel do not seem right. Also, the concept is a bit forced. You could equally show the 2 logos of the joint venture partners on the last slide and you convey the same message.
And worst of all: because these type of images have been over-used so much in bad presentations, putting one up will immediately make your audience assume that this presentation will fit into that category.
The one below for example. It requires a lot of technical skill to make it, but somehow the colors and the look and feel do not seem right. Also, the concept is a bit forced. You could equally show the 2 logos of the joint venture partners on the last slide and you convey the same message.
And worst of all: because these type of images have been over-used so much in bad presentations, putting one up will immediately make your audience assume that this presentation will fit into that category.
Image housekeeping
In the heat of the presentation design process, you can easily forget some basic image house keeping. You search Flickr for a Creative Commons image, find it, CMD-C/CMD-V into PowerPoint, go back to find the name of photographer and put it in small letters on the PowerPoint slide. Done.
What next? PowerPoint reduces the resolution of the image to 72 DPI, and crops off the bits you do not use (if you compress files). Also, inside a PowerPoint file, it is much harder to find that image when you want to use it later. So instead: save your file to disk with a good description, including the name of the photographer. If you want, you can add meta data in workflow applications such as Aperture. In this way, you are building on a useful photo library for the future.
Milton Glaser: To inform and delight
The wonderful thing about movie streaming services like Netflix is that it opens up a long tail of movies that you normally would not buy on DVD. I am digging through the art and design section and stumble of some really interesting documentaries.
Last week, I watched “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight ” (affiliate link), a documentary about U.S. graphic designer Milton Glaser (probably best known for the design of the I heart NY logo). The film provides excellent food for thought for any designer. Here are some random insights from the movie.
Last week, I watched “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight ” (affiliate link), a documentary about U.S. graphic designer Milton Glaser (probably best known for the design of the I heart NY logo). The film provides excellent food for thought for any designer. Here are some random insights from the movie.
 |
| An album cover for Bob Dylan (fragment) that became a symbol of the 60s |
- A designer should not everything on a silver plate to the audience, but leave something to solve. His I heart NY is an example of that.
- Art and design create symbols for people to connect. Through art they have something to share rather than killing each other. Milton thinks this is the gift of art
- Upon graduation from high school and after his decision to gor art rather than science, his art teacher handed him a pencil box as a gift and said: “Do good work.”. Makes sense.
- The movie title was inspired by a quote from the Roman poet Horace: “The purpose of art is to inform and delight”
- Another good one: “drawing is thinking” to describe the intuitive process of free sketching on a white sheet of paper.
- And his insight that every object is defined by its opposite. It reminds us how important it is to use contrast in design.
What a potential investor really means when she requests a business plan
The traditional business plan used to be a 200 page Microsoft Word document. A large part of it was filled with fluffy market background information and more fluffy industry buzzwords, frameworks and mission statements. It was always out of date. Its primary purpose was to rest your hand on it and say: “We have a business plan”. Nobody would really read it.
In most startups, the business plan is replaced with a large PowerPoint slide deck that evolves rapidly over time. A selection of the slides in this document are upgraded to be used in standup presentations. The vast majority of them are dense appendix material.
Daniel Tenner wrote a good blog post about what it means when an investors asks whether you can email her a business plan. In short, after the initial pitch, the investor wants a document that can be emailed (forwarded to partners) that answers some fundamental questions about your venture. The content should be good, the content can be short, and you can afford to invest less in the design of the slides.
In most startups, the business plan is replaced with a large PowerPoint slide deck that evolves rapidly over time. A selection of the slides in this document are upgraded to be used in standup presentations. The vast majority of them are dense appendix material.
Daniel Tenner wrote a good blog post about what it means when an investors asks whether you can email her a business plan. In short, after the initial pitch, the investor wants a document that can be emailed (forwarded to partners) that answers some fundamental questions about your venture. The content should be good, the content can be short, and you can afford to invest less in the design of the slides.
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