During a project briefing I usually take the role of the potential investor and start to ask questions that are not necessarily related to the page we are on. You try to understand the company, tick off the boxes that are obvious and are left with a few questions that are not clear. A good investor presentation should anticipate the investor’s thought process and provide the answers right at the moment they are needed, but hey, we are still at the briefing phase so no need to be perfect yet.
So, in a one on one meeting (where you can accomodate a slightly more chaotic story flow), when the investor asks you a question, answer it. Skipping/ignoring it and continuing to go down the list of product benefits (we are flexible, scalable, and deliver ROI) does not neutralize that nagging worry in the investor’s mind. Answering is probably not that difficult for you, acquiring the patience to listen is.
Waterfall chart with negatives
My post about how to create a McKinsey-style waterfall chart is one of the most read on this blog. The method I showed breaks down when there are many negative numbers involved. The solution is a manual one, sketch your waterfall on a piece of paper, fill in all the numbers, and fiddle with colours until you get it right. Remove the automated data labels and put text boxes with the values instead. See the example below.
Infographic overload
This infographic by Synthesio about the positive side effects of the Burger King Twitter hack is a good example of what - in my opinion - is often wrong with infographics: too much noise (facts, breakdowns, inconsistent graphics), not enough signal.
A better visualisation would be a simple time line at the top, below that a horizontal bar with the Burger King logo, followed by a horizontal bar with the McDonald's logo, below that one stat (maybe number of mentions). This shows that as soon as the logo flips, traffic goes through the roof.
A better visualisation would be a simple time line at the top, below that a horizontal bar with the Burger King logo, followed by a horizontal bar with the McDonald's logo, below that one stat (maybe number of mentions). This shows that as soon as the logo flips, traffic goes through the roof.
Demo <> Features
The application demo in your presentation is not meant to be a systematic overview of features. Instead, you want to give the investor/customer the most powerful impression of what the app can do. Dragging her through menus, sign-in pages, and settings gives a realistic impression of what it is like to work with your app, but it is a boring 5 minutes inside your 20 minute pitch.
Describe a problem, show what you would enter into a search box , show what a beautiful solution your apps produces instantly. Three screen shots instead of 15 pages of live demo which are better left for the next meeting.
Describe a problem
Down a tangent too early
In the beginning of your presentation, the audience is trying to figure you out, and is forming a broad framework about what it is you are talking about. Watch out not to go off on a tangent too early in your story, your audience is not ready for it. Later in your talk, once the overall framework is established, it is perfectly fine to go on a little deviation.
For those interested: in geometry, the tangent is a line or surface that just touches a curve. After the connecting point both lines separate (Wikipedia).
For those interested: in geometry, the tangent is a line or surface that just touches a curve. After the connecting point both lines separate (Wikipedia).
LiveSurface 2
A few days ago I wrote about LiveSurface and their set of stock images with blank surfaces to put your own artwork on. On the site, I signed up for their new product: LiveSurface Context (request an invite here). It is a small program that takes care of the 3D manipulation of your artwork in order to fit it on the surface.
The experience is much better than the vanishing point filter in PhotoShop. No more guesswork to draw the guidelines, no more fiddling and copying/pasting to move your artwork. Everything is ultra-precise and with total control for the designer.
A few drawbacks though for the casual designer. You need to have a version of Adobe Illustrator installed on your machine (and more importantly, know the basics of how to work with it). Secondly, the service charges a subscription model that works if you need to use a lot of these compositions, but is not economical for infrequent use. And finally, the library of surface images is smaller than you would find on regular stock image sites.
All in all a good service, and as a professional designer, I might give it a try.
The experience is much better than the vanishing point filter in PhotoShop. No more guesswork to draw the guidelines, no more fiddling and copying/pasting to move your artwork. Everything is ultra-precise and with total control for the designer.
A few drawbacks though for the casual designer. You need to have a version of Adobe Illustrator installed on your machine (and more importantly, know the basics of how to work with it). Secondly, the service charges a subscription model that works if you need to use a lot of these compositions, but is not economical for infrequent use. And finally, the library of surface images is smaller than you would find on regular stock image sites.
All in all a good service, and as a professional designer, I might give it a try.
The stunning presentation opening
A question the other day: “What stunning visuals should I use to wake up the audience? I drew the speaking slot just after lunch...”. My answer was to pick an inspirational story (preferably personal) and tell it naturally, even without a single visual.
Out with the action verbs
At McKinsey, I was told to write my documents with action verbs: create strategy, draft business plan, begin execution, monitor progress. It is the correct way to write things, but space on a slide is scarce. More and more, I find myself violating the rule and writing the absolute minimum amount of words to get the idea across, every increase in font size is a plus.
"I am a headhunter"
Many of the spam email messages I receive start with a wobbly story about an ever changing world of social media confusion and making it very hard to understand what the spammer actually wants.
Good headhunters start their call well, with “I am a headhunter” which saves critical time that can be spent on pitching what they want.
Good headhunters start their call well, with “I am a headhunter” which saves critical time that can be spent on pitching what they want.
Design inspiration
See how easy it is to use a classic design into a beautiful presentation template. A 1962 brochure designed by Josef Mueller-Brockmann (read more about him in this book), image of the girls by H-Huynh.
Stepping back
In the heat of the design process it is easy to let go of your ambition to design beautiful slides. Take a break, flip through a design coffee table book, and remember why work by great graphics designers looks so great.
- White space, even if that means smaller font size
- Custom fonts (if technology allows it)
- Font weights (very thin, very heavy)
- Font color (black, grey shades)
- Words per line, where to break a line
- Positioning of text on the canvas
- Artistic, subtle, instead of blunt photography
- Minimal use of colours
- Leading between lines
- Take it easy on drop shadows, gradients, and reflections
Nothing is rocket science here, just trying, and trying, until you have found out why it somehow does not look right...
The Pixar Pitch
In his latest book, Daniel Pink talks about 6 new ways to pitch an idea (video). One of the most interesting one is what he calls “The Pixar Pitch”, a story line that follows the typical plot of a Pixar animated movie:
Once upon a time [fill in blank]
One day [fill in blank]
Because of that [fill in blank]
Until finally [fill in blank]
Robosourcing
Over on the Daniel Pink blog, a brief discussion about robosourcing; software that automatically generates prose based on statistical information (sports, finance, etc.).
I do not consider that a bad thing. In fact, I believe that many human journalists just do that: take data that can be neatly summarised in a visual and dilute it into text that takes far longer to digest and often provides an incomplete picture.
I am looking for technology that goes the other way: take human prose and turn it into razor sharp visuals and tables.
I do not consider that a bad thing. In fact, I believe that many human journalists just do that: take data that can be neatly summarised in a visual and dilute it into text that takes far longer to digest and often provides an incomplete picture.
I am looking for technology that goes the other way: take human prose and turn it into razor sharp visuals and tables.
LiveSurface
Putting objects on realistic 3D image surfaces requires a good eye to find an image on a stock photo site and some skill in PhotoShop. LiveSurface aims to make life a little bit easier, if focusses just on these types of images and the file you buy has everything you need (layers, filters). Still, you need to know what to do in PhotoShop though and you pay for the extra work through a higher image price.
The above was created from an iStockPhoto image that has increased in price since I purchased it a number of years ago (see earlier post)
The above was created from an iStockPhoto image that has increased in price since I purchased it a number of years ago (see earlier post)
The greys do not match!
A few days ago, a friend posted a “complaint” on her facebook timeline that her husband always failed to spot fashion imperfections, in this case grey tints that did not match.
Grey colours sit in the center of the color wheel with equal balance of Red, Green, and Blue. But tipping the balance of the color mix a little bit instantly makes your grey look different. Use it as a design option to create a matching set of colours, watch out if it is not what you intended to do.
The same is true in black and white images, not every BW image is really pure grey, but it is easy to correct it, just have PowerPoint or Keynote turn it into a proper black and white image.
Grey colours sit in the center of the color wheel with equal balance of Red, Green, and Blue. But tipping the balance of the color mix a little bit instantly makes your grey look different. Use it as a design option to create a matching set of colours, watch out if it is not what you intended to do.
The same is true in black and white images, not every BW image is really pure grey, but it is easy to correct it, just have PowerPoint or Keynote turn it into a proper black and white image.
The story page
Many corporate web sites still emphasise 1990s-style content on their home pages: mission statements, contributions to the community, corporate history. I really like this deck with design concepts for 2013, including a suggestion to turn your home page into your story page.
Stock image pricing
There are big pricing differences between stock image sites, especially for snaps that are different from the over-used smiling call center rep head shots. For example, iStockPhoto uses tiered pricing for images that have a more interesting composition. Shutterstock still uses flat rate pricing. These pie throwing chefs will cost you as much as an image of an orange isolated on a white background. It is worth to give Shutterstock a try. (No, I was not paid to write this).
Phasing out Excel
In email, I went from Lotus Notes, to Microsoft Outlook, to gmail. And now it is the turn of the spreadsheet: from Lotus 1-2-3, to Microsoft Excel, to Google Spreadsheets.
Excel has too many features. Even at my time at McKinsey where I built very complex spreadsheet models (mostly company valuations), I only used the very basic functions (numerical operators) to ensure that I completely understand what is going on in the model. Bugs could mean billions of dollars for my clients.
The features come at a price, on my Mac Excel 2011 has annoying delays when entering even the most basic of calculations.
The design of the Google apps have come a long way. Especially for spreadsheets, collaboration with multiple people is important. And finally, the Google spreadsheet is perfectly accessible on a mobile device.
Goodbye Excel.
Excel has too many features. Even at my time at McKinsey where I built very complex spreadsheet models (mostly company valuations), I only used the very basic functions (numerical operators) to ensure that I completely understand what is going on in the model. Bugs could mean billions of dollars for my clients.
The features come at a price, on my Mac Excel 2011 has annoying delays when entering even the most basic of calculations.
The design of the Google apps have come a long way. Especially for spreadsheets, collaboration with multiple people is important. And finally, the Google spreadsheet is perfectly accessible on a mobile device.
Goodbye Excel.
Zoho Show mini review
Zoho is a web app suite targeted at small businesses. One of the apps is Zoho Show, a presentation design suite. Yesterday, I gave it a test ride.
A cutting-edge presentation design tool is not the key selling point of Zoho, it is just one of the components of a broader offering of business software with different benefits: attractive pricing when compared to Microsoft Office, access to your files from any location with an Internet connection, and easy collaboration on documents with colleagues.
You do not notice that the Zoho slide design interface is run in a web browser. Interactions are smooth and fast. The application is designed to resemble Microsoft PowerPoint, menu colors look similar, and menu options are stored in familiar places. Unlike Google Docs, Zoho does allow you to crop images (a very important feature).
The basic PowerPoint user will have no problem working in Zoho Show, with one big exception: the ability to create data charts. In Zoho, you need to create them in the spreadsheet application and port them across using an image. This is an issue for people that live and breath bar and column charts day in, day out. (Google Docs has the same issue, it is probably complicated to include a full spreadsheet chart engine inside a presentation app).
For more advanced presentation designers, there are certain things missing. Template management is poor (same as with Google), and you miss the ability to align objects, snap them together on the screen. Font selections are limited, and as with all web apps it is hard to configure a tool bar for fast access to functions you often need (aligning objects, etc.).
Presentation mode also has lower functionality. Zoho requires a live internet connection to present your slides (not as big an issue anymore as it was a few years ago), and even in full screen mode there is a white browser bar on top of the slides. But presenters will miss the presenter screen most: a small window that shows the next slide that is coming up, plus speaker notes and a clock to keep track of time.
I now have tried out Google Docs, SlideRocket, and the Zoho presentation apps. SlideRocket is the only credible alternative to PowerPoint/Keynote in terms of features but it lacks the file ecosystem of Zoho and Google. The fact that Google does not allow you to crop images (a corner stone feature) puts Zoho ahead of it (for the moment, deep-pocketed Google can fix things fast).
But then again, the presentation app will not be the deciding factor when enterprises make a decision between Google Docs and Zoho.
I tested Zoho only briefly, if something I wrote in this mini review is incorrect, please let me know and I will update the post as soon as possible.
A cutting-edge presentation design tool is not the key selling point of Zoho, it is just one of the components of a broader offering of business software with different benefits: attractive pricing when compared to Microsoft Office, access to your files from any location with an Internet connection, and easy collaboration on documents with colleagues.
You do not notice that the Zoho slide design interface is run in a web browser. Interactions are smooth and fast. The application is designed to resemble Microsoft PowerPoint, menu colors look similar, and menu options are stored in familiar places. Unlike Google Docs, Zoho does allow you to crop images (a very important feature).
The basic PowerPoint user will have no problem working in Zoho Show, with one big exception: the ability to create data charts. In Zoho, you need to create them in the spreadsheet application and port them across using an image. This is an issue for people that live and breath bar and column charts day in, day out. (Google Docs has the same issue, it is probably complicated to include a full spreadsheet chart engine inside a presentation app).
For more advanced presentation designers, there are certain things missing. Template management is poor (same as with Google), and you miss the ability to align objects, snap them together on the screen. Font selections are limited, and as with all web apps it is hard to configure a tool bar for fast access to functions you often need (aligning objects, etc.).
Presentation mode also has lower functionality. Zoho requires a live internet connection to present your slides (not as big an issue anymore as it was a few years ago), and even in full screen mode there is a white browser bar on top of the slides. But presenters will miss the presenter screen most: a small window that shows the next slide that is coming up, plus speaker notes and a clock to keep track of time.
I now have tried out Google Docs, SlideRocket, and the Zoho presentation apps. SlideRocket is the only credible alternative to PowerPoint/Keynote in terms of features but it lacks the file ecosystem of Zoho and Google. The fact that Google does not allow you to crop images (a corner stone feature) puts Zoho ahead of it (for the moment, deep-pocketed Google can fix things fast).
But then again, the presentation app will not be the deciding factor when enterprises make a decision between Google Docs and Zoho.
I tested Zoho only briefly, if something I wrote in this mini review is incorrect, please let me know and I will update the post as soon as possible.
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