Learning from impressionists
Every presentation slide should have a clear organization, and direct the eye. Paintings are a good example. Have a look at this painting by Monet: The garden at Sainte Adresse. It is clearly divided in 3 horizontal bands, has a strong diagonal cutting across, and the flags and steam clouds from the boats provide energy that leads the eye from left to right.
Think of yourself as an interviewer
Back in the old days at McKinsey, your interviewing skills as a consultant on a team would be evaluated roughly on 3 levels: 1) you got the piece of information you needed (the market for [x] is $1bn, 2) you managed to get an insight that was completely new to the team, and 3) you actually made the interviewee realize something she did not know before.
Great journalists know exactly what questions to ask at what time in the interview. The interviewer draws out the story of the interviewee.
When designing a presentation think of your self as the interviewer. If you design something for someone else, then you can take it literally. If you design something for yourself, imagine interviewing yourself in front of a big audience.
Poor interview question: what five pieces of research support the assumption about the target market size? Good interview question: what, I thought only 5 people need this product, give me a feel for why this thing is huge? Poor interview question: "Now that we have spent the past 30 minutes analyzing the market, let me ask you: what do you actually want to achieve?" Good interview question: "before we dive in, tell us quickly what your ambition is". Poor interview question: "So let me re-phrase what I think your story is". Great interview question: "But is your story not a bigger one if we draw the parallel with this?"
Then you will have hit level 3, the interviewee walks out of the chair with a different perspective, and the re-designed presentation will be more than a beautification of existing slides. Which interview do you want to follow to the end, and which one will you skip with the mouse or remote control?
Image of Larry King and Vladimir Putin from Wikipedia
Great journalists know exactly what questions to ask at what time in the interview. The interviewer draws out the story of the interviewee.
When designing a presentation think of your self as the interviewer. If you design something for someone else, then you can take it literally. If you design something for yourself, imagine interviewing yourself in front of a big audience.
Poor interview question: what five pieces of research support the assumption about the target market size? Good interview question: what, I thought only 5 people need this product, give me a feel for why this thing is huge? Poor interview question: "Now that we have spent the past 30 minutes analyzing the market, let me ask you: what do you actually want to achieve?" Good interview question: "before we dive in, tell us quickly what your ambition is". Poor interview question: "So let me re-phrase what I think your story is". Great interview question: "But is your story not a bigger one if we draw the parallel with this?"
Then you will have hit level 3, the interviewee walks out of the chair with a different perspective, and the re-designed presentation will be more than a beautification of existing slides. Which interview do you want to follow to the end, and which one will you skip with the mouse or remote control?
Image of Larry King and Vladimir Putin from Wikipedia
Investor presentation in HTML
Have a look at the DressRush investor presentation, an entire pitch deck written as a web site, in the public domain. Some of my observations.
I like publicly available investor pitches. It fits in the wave of increasing transparency in the startup funding market. (Check out Angel List). Startups can dramatically increase their access to potential investors by making part of their content public. The first stage of a fund raising round does not have to be the closed meeting room of the VCs that happen to be located in the same city as you are. Obviously you would not put your core IP, financials, or other sensitive strategic content in a public presentation. Another option would be to make the sensitive part of your investor pitch on your web site pass word protected.
I like these airy web sites. Lots of white space and information that you can scroll through freely, up and down. I actually first skim the whole site in a few seconds, then go back up to start reading in more detail. This is so much better than the nervous clicking on a small button in a SlideShare window (especially when people design slides that -click- break up -click- a sentence -click- in 5 -click- slides.
It is still tricky to design from this new medium though. The DressRush example uses beautiful muted colors (interrupted here and there by images and facebook logos) and takes an infographic approach to investor pitches. On certain pages it works, on others it does not. In whatever direction the technology develops, you still will need to eye of a good designer to get your investor pitch right, also in HTML.
I will continue to follow these developments with interest.
I like publicly available investor pitches. It fits in the wave of increasing transparency in the startup funding market. (Check out Angel List). Startups can dramatically increase their access to potential investors by making part of their content public. The first stage of a fund raising round does not have to be the closed meeting room of the VCs that happen to be located in the same city as you are. Obviously you would not put your core IP, financials, or other sensitive strategic content in a public presentation. Another option would be to make the sensitive part of your investor pitch on your web site pass word protected.
I like these airy web sites. Lots of white space and information that you can scroll through freely, up and down. I actually first skim the whole site in a few seconds, then go back up to start reading in more detail. This is so much better than the nervous clicking on a small button in a SlideShare window (especially when people design slides that -click- break up -click- a sentence -click- in 5 -click- slides.
It is still tricky to design from this new medium though. The DressRush example uses beautiful muted colors (interrupted here and there by images and facebook logos) and takes an infographic approach to investor pitches. On certain pages it works, on others it does not. In whatever direction the technology develops, you still will need to eye of a good designer to get your investor pitch right, also in HTML.
I will continue to follow these developments with interest.
How to present a valuation
Hardly anyone puts a valuation number on a PowerPoint slide in an M&A negotiation or an investor pitch. In publicly quoted companies there are legal constraints, but most of all: a buyer is unlikely to believe a number put up buy the seller. So how do you as a seller get the buyer to move in the right direction using a presentation?
The answer is: teach and spoon-feed the right assumptions. Someone on the buy-side is going to construct an Excel valuation model of your business. Put yourself in her shoes and guide her through the process.
What components of value are there? The business units of today. The future growth of these existing businesses, but remind her to include growth options beyond that as well.
Valuation models are forward looking, financial data looks backward. So it is important to teach the buy side how to model your business going forward without giving the answer. Instead suggest how the sales of your business works (it is all about number of stores and sales per square meter). Suggest some non-financial growth rates, or give an indication of your store opening program. Explain how the cost structure works. We can support 50 more stores without adding cost to our head quarters.
Give the sell-side a quick refresh about the theory of calculating discount rates. What should be taken into account. What ranges of values do you see?
The best way to prepare such a presentation is actually to design a valuation model yourself without inside information. It teaches you the process the other side will go through.
In short: spoon-feeding the sell-side a valuation model is much more powerful than arguing over the point estimate of the outcome.
Note: the above is written with a relatively mature company in mind that has reasonably steady and predictable cashflows. Early-stage venture valuations are a different subject matter.
The answer is: teach and spoon-feed the right assumptions. Someone on the buy-side is going to construct an Excel valuation model of your business. Put yourself in her shoes and guide her through the process.
What components of value are there? The business units of today. The future growth of these existing businesses, but remind her to include growth options beyond that as well.
Valuation models are forward looking, financial data looks backward. So it is important to teach the buy side how to model your business going forward without giving the answer. Instead suggest how the sales of your business works (it is all about number of stores and sales per square meter). Suggest some non-financial growth rates, or give an indication of your store opening program. Explain how the cost structure works. We can support 50 more stores without adding cost to our head quarters.
Give the sell-side a quick refresh about the theory of calculating discount rates. What should be taken into account. What ranges of values do you see?
The best way to prepare such a presentation is actually to design a valuation model yourself without inside information. It teaches you the process the other side will go through.
In short: spoon-feeding the sell-side a valuation model is much more powerful than arguing over the point estimate of the outcome.
Note: the above is written with a relatively mature company in mind that has reasonably steady and predictable cashflows. Early-stage venture valuations are a different subject matter.
Two ways to emphasize text
Method 1 - emphasize subject: you can apply all bold, italics and underline effects, increase the font size, and pick a nice bright red character color (make sure you use all effects at the same time)
Method 2 - de-emphasize background: cut out all the visual clutter and distractions so that the point you want to make just appears by itself.
Guess which one I prefer?
Method 2 - de-emphasize background: cut out all the visual clutter and distractions so that the point you want to make just appears by itself.
Guess which one I prefer?
Rosling presents with IKEA props
This TED talk by Hans Rosling (not the one that brought him world fame) is a great example of replacing PowerPoint slides with simple props.
(B.t.w., I like how he attached the Flip video camera stand to the Volvo car model)
(B.t.w., I like how he attached the Flip video camera stand to the Volvo car model)
Rubber stamping a business plan?
I had a phone call with a potential client yesterday. He needed an investor presentation but also was interested in a full business plan.
There are different documents that both are called business plan. One is a stack of files (spreadsheets, gantt charts, PowerPoint slides) that contains the company financials/budget, competitive analysis, and development mile stones. In short: real content. It does not have to look pretty.
The second one is a long document created in Microsoft Word in which market research data is copy pasted (IDC says our market is $1bn), the company opportunity is described with lots of buzz words, and so forth.
You need the first one, you can forget about the second type of business plan. They take forever to write, they take forever to iterate, and as a result they are always out of date. No one reads long written text. Brad Feld and others have called them obsolete.
My client admitted that the business plan job was simply a matter of writing up material that was already there. He was willing to invest lots of money and 2.5 months of work with a consulting firm to have the document rubber stamped, paying for the logo on the front page.
I think it is a waste of money, time, and effort. If the only thing the consulting firm does is write down stuff that already exists, investors will look right though it and judge the investment opportunity based on your content, not the way in which it is written. If it is market data you are after, pay for the market data directly, rather than by hiring a consulting firm in the middle.
Instead, spend a fraction of the 2.5 months time on creating a running slideument of PowerPoint slides and Excel sheets that is the first type of business plan that I was talking about. Change pages as new information becomes available. This document is the messy business plan that you can send to an investor who has expressed a serious interest and would like to dive deep in round 2 or 3 of the due diligence.
The real investor presentation is written for an audience that does not know you very well yet (round 0). It draws on information from the business plan slide deck, but not fully. This presentation are the visuals you feel you miss when you start explaining your business to someone new in 10 to 20 minutes and should be designed from scratch.
Are consultants always a waste of money? Not always (watch out I am biased having been one myself). They can be useful when there is a very specific problem to crack. For example: should we enter market A or B? And then, a firm is only useful if it adds new insights that cannot be bought from market research. A clever market forecast model, interviews with industry experts.
Another type of consultant who might be worth paying for is not a big firm with a big name, but a retired senior executive in the industry segment you are working. She can provide a very valuable expert opinion. These type of project are usually very short, but worth the money. You are not paying for analytical ground work, you are paying for the judgement of 30 years of experience delivered to you in 2 weeks.
In short, pay for real work, not rubber stamping.
If you are interested, here is an earlier post about why I do not believe in business plans.
There are different documents that both are called business plan. One is a stack of files (spreadsheets, gantt charts, PowerPoint slides) that contains the company financials/budget, competitive analysis, and development mile stones. In short: real content. It does not have to look pretty.
The second one is a long document created in Microsoft Word in which market research data is copy pasted (IDC says our market is $1bn), the company opportunity is described with lots of buzz words, and so forth.
You need the first one, you can forget about the second type of business plan. They take forever to write, they take forever to iterate, and as a result they are always out of date. No one reads long written text. Brad Feld and others have called them obsolete.
My client admitted that the business plan job was simply a matter of writing up material that was already there. He was willing to invest lots of money and 2.5 months of work with a consulting firm to have the document rubber stamped, paying for the logo on the front page.
I think it is a waste of money, time, and effort. If the only thing the consulting firm does is write down stuff that already exists, investors will look right though it and judge the investment opportunity based on your content, not the way in which it is written. If it is market data you are after, pay for the market data directly, rather than by hiring a consulting firm in the middle.
Instead, spend a fraction of the 2.5 months time on creating a running slideument of PowerPoint slides and Excel sheets that is the first type of business plan that I was talking about. Change pages as new information becomes available. This document is the messy business plan that you can send to an investor who has expressed a serious interest and would like to dive deep in round 2 or 3 of the due diligence.
The real investor presentation is written for an audience that does not know you very well yet (round 0). It draws on information from the business plan slide deck, but not fully. This presentation are the visuals you feel you miss when you start explaining your business to someone new in 10 to 20 minutes and should be designed from scratch.
Are consultants always a waste of money? Not always (watch out I am biased having been one myself). They can be useful when there is a very specific problem to crack. For example: should we enter market A or B? And then, a firm is only useful if it adds new insights that cannot be bought from market research. A clever market forecast model, interviews with industry experts.
Another type of consultant who might be worth paying for is not a big firm with a big name, but a retired senior executive in the industry segment you are working. She can provide a very valuable expert opinion. These type of project are usually very short, but worth the money. You are not paying for analytical ground work, you are paying for the judgement of 30 years of experience delivered to you in 2 weeks.
In short, pay for real work, not rubber stamping.
If you are interested, here is an earlier post about why I do not believe in business plans.
Preaching to the converted
A story from the early 90s. Back then I had recently joined McKinsey as a Business Analyst and got involved in recruiting presentations at Dutch universities to try to convince more engineers to apply for a position. The slide deck covered it all: our offices, our expertise, our clients, our selection process.
Until one day we did a survey asking the audience to rank how useful this presentation was. The outcome: people already knew that we were probably very smart, worked with prestigious clients, were unlikely to starve because of lack of financial resources, and were very professional.
The questions the students had were: are you guys human or nerds, do you really have to work 80 hours a week, how on earth can a physics engineer be useful there? These questions you cannot really address on a slide, so we cut the introduction presentation to the minimum (to re-confirm what people already knew), and then switched off the projector and started talking about us as a person, and opening up the discussion for questions.
Preaching to the converted is a waste of time. Instead, use your presentation to address the issues the audience has.
Brutal honesty and a 5 second test
I am linking to 2 posts related to venture capitalist Vinod Koshla today.
The first is about brutal honesty in investor presentations by Michael Arrington. He argues that indirect polite language because people are afraid to turn down a startup is not helping anyone (including the pitching startup).
The second is a blog post by speech coach Jerry Weisman: the 5 second test. If your (test) audience fails to produce the point of a slide when you hide at after 5 seconds, the slide is too complex. An audience trying to figure out what a slide means is not listening to the audio track.
(Thank you Wouter Deelman for pointing this out to me)
The first is about brutal honesty in investor presentations by Michael Arrington. He argues that indirect polite language because people are afraid to turn down a startup is not helping anyone (including the pitching startup).
The second is a blog post by speech coach Jerry Weisman: the 5 second test. If your (test) audience fails to produce the point of a slide when you hide at after 5 seconds, the slide is too complex. An audience trying to figure out what a slide means is not listening to the audio track.
(Thank you Wouter Deelman for pointing this out to me)
Mixing slide styles
In many of my investor presentations I mix slide design styles.
- In the beginning, big images to catch the attention of the investor and make her feel the pain that you are trying to solve. These slides are good enough to put up in a big keynote address.
- Later on, more dense slides follow with details of the technical architecture, the financials and the team experience. These work in a small conference room, but definitely not on a large stage.
Getting your boss to rehearse a presentation
How do you convince an overly confident, highly senior executive that it makes sense to rehearse tomorrow's presentation? “Me, hey, I have given thousands of presentations in my career, I will wing this one!”
Winging does not work, you need to know your substance in-and-out in order to be spontaneous. A presentation without rehearsing produces of one of two possible results: a poor performance, or a replay of the presentation you gave last time without emphasizing the new content in the deck.
I do not have the ultimate answer. You can say that Steve Jobs took days to rehearse a keynote. You can scare her and say that the analysts in the audience tomorrow see hundreds of presenters each year, and you better stand out. Or sometimes, people agree to go through the presentation with an outsider like me, the presentation designer, in a closed room where non of their subordinates have to hear the corrections we discuss.
What does work for you?
Winging does not work, you need to know your substance in-and-out in order to be spontaneous. A presentation without rehearsing produces of one of two possible results: a poor performance, or a replay of the presentation you gave last time without emphasizing the new content in the deck.
I do not have the ultimate answer. You can say that Steve Jobs took days to rehearse a keynote. You can scare her and say that the analysts in the audience tomorrow see hundreds of presenters each year, and you better stand out. Or sometimes, people agree to go through the presentation with an outsider like me, the presentation designer, in a closed room where non of their subordinates have to hear the corrections we discuss.
What does work for you?
Just to be sure
When your boss is editing your slides, there is a risk that she will add the same key message on every slide. She has not fully immersed herself in your story. She does not see the full context of the presentation. Time is short, too short in fact to study the presentation in detail.
Better make sure that the point “our architecture is flexible” gets mentioned a few times in the deck. Extra bullet on page 3, a nice bubble on the side on slide 7, foot note on page 15, and bold the flexibility point on the last page.
Have the courage to stand up and stop her.
Better make sure that the point “our architecture is flexible” gets mentioned a few times in the deck. Extra bullet on page 3, a nice bubble on the side on slide 7, foot note on page 15, and bold the flexibility point on the last page.
Have the courage to stand up and stop her.
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