Winning The Room: Creating and Delivering an Effective Data-Driven Presentation

 
The new book Winning The Room focuses on common errors that presenters make when delivering a data-driven presentation to a live audience. Although universities and corporate training programs teach the theory behind how to generate analytics and data, they don’t spend time on how to effectively present that information to others. 

Delivering an effective data-driven presentation to a live audience isn’t the same as discussing technical details with peers or compiling a written document, especially when the presentation is for a largely nontechnical audience. You must enable your audience to:

1. Understand what you’ve found
2. Grasp the implications
3. Take action

Let’s review the core phases of creating and delivering a successful data-driven presentation covered by the book’s 119 tips and 140 illustrations.

1) Planning the Presentation: Reviewing Strategic Fundamentals

Doing a great job in later phases of the process won’t make up for having a poor foundational presentation approach and strategy.

2) Planning the Presentation: Designing the Presentation

Moviemakers don’t start shooting scenes and then hope to chain them together into a good movie. Rather, they design the story and each scene in detail before any filming takes place. You must follow this model to create and deliver an effective data-driven presentation.

3) Developing the Presentation: Wording and Text 

You must get your points across clearly and succinctly while using terms and phrasing that your (often nontechnical) audience can understand. 

4) Developing the Presentation: Numbers and Labels 

Your goal is to communicate to your audience the larger trends, patterns, and outcomes your work uncovered while using the fewest numbers possible.

5) Developing the Presentation: Charts, Images, and Layouts

When creating charts and graphs, it doesn’t take much incremental effort to ensure that your presentation looks great while successfully communicating your core messages to the audience.

6) Delivering the Presentation: Final Presentation Preparation

Knowing what you’ll say, anticipating the questions you’ll receive, and validating that your spoken words flow smoothly are critical to success. Your final preparation is the last chance to ensure your messaging is on target and that you will successfully drive home your key points. 

7) Delivering the Presentation: Giving the Presentation 

You must ensure that your delivery is compelling. If you win the trust and confidence of the audience, you can motivate them to embrace your conclusions and act on your recommendations. This, in turn, will make your efforts a resounding success!

Summary

Just like athletes continue to practice basic skills throughout their careers, it is also necessary to constantly refresh yourself on how to create and deliver data-driven presentations effectively. By keeping Winning The Room handy as a reference, readers of all experience levels will greatly enhance the effectiveness of their own data-driven presentations. Available here.

Content derived from the book Winning The Room (John Wiley & Sons, 2022)