technical presentation for non technical audience

How to deliver a technical presentation to a non-technical audience

You need to explain a topic that'll make your audience's eyes glaze over. No problem. Just follow these instructions in your technical presentation.

Elevate Your Testing Career to a New Level with a Free, Self-Paced Functionize Intelligent Certification

You know how to explain things to an audience whose background is like your own. But how do you get the message across when the subject matter is bound to go over the listeners’ heads? Analogies. Lots of analogies.

If you are in a technical field such as software development, the scenario is inevitable. At some point, you need to explain an aspect of your work to someone who has no clue what you’re talking about. 

Maybe you have to explain to the CFO why your project needs more funding to take advantage of a breakthrough, what was behind a big software failure, or why your development team needs an expensive tool. You may be asked to explain to a non-technical customer how your software works. Or perhaps the CEO asks you to give a “lunch and learn” to bring the manufacturing department up to date on an upcoming industry technology that may impact the company (5G networking, artificial intelligence, quantum computing). 

Regardless of the reason, you have to explain very technical details to someone who doesn’t understand the subject – but it’s crucial that they pay attention. So now what? 

This article offers tips about how to reach an audience – whether it’s a solo CEO or a board room full of corporate execs – who might space out before you reach the third slide. Yet, you need people to stay awake until the end, and to respond, “Yes, that’s a good idea! Let’s do that!” 

I assume that you know the basics of organizing and delivering a presentation , such as limiting the number of PowerPoint slides, or practicing your delivery to stay within the time allotted. You’re already an expert at the topic at hand, or you wouldn’t be in the position to do the presentation. Plus, I assume, you are comfortable with people who share at least some domain knowledge with you, such as other software developers or scientists. You just don’t know how to reach these people.

How technical do you need to be? Are you sure about that?

Start by contemplating what the audience does know; how much they need to understand to meet your objective (say, to allocate the budget you’re requesting); and what level of information you need to impart in order to achieve that goal.

You may not need to be as technical as you think you do. If your goal is to acquire funding, the audience may be far more interested in business benefits (“We’ll save a pile of money!”) than in the techie details that excite you (“a million CPU cycles per second!”). Make sure that you’re really serving your audience, not your own enthusiasm for the topic. 

“Executives don’t really care about the bits and bytes. They want to know why they should care,” says Alissa Knight, previously a security analyst specializing in financial sector security. Knight used to fly around the world, explaining to chief security officers how she and her team could penetrate a bank’s security. “What they like to see is the impact to the business.” 

“Pay attention to the difference between benefits and features,” agrees Harwell Thrasher, author of Boiling the IT Frog . “Tech people fall in love with features but the actual benefits of the technology are what’s important.” 

“Avoid getting too much into the how ,” Knight adds. “Leave the how out. They care about the what .” 

Keep in mind that the audience doesn’t have to become an expert on the topic. They don’t need to know everything you know; they hired you for that knowledge. Instead, the listeners want to understand the caveats and limitations of the things you’re talking about, the contexts under which it works, where it’s an awkward fit, and what to expect based on interactions with other systems. 

That said, sometimes you need to get downright geeky. You can stress the high-level benefits of a medical breakthrough (such as “fewer people will die”), but if your research team found a new route for tackling drug resistance in skin cancer cells , at some point you have to describe what a cytoskeleton is.

You can’t have too many analogies or examples

“I’ve been asked to present to the board of directors for some very large companies,” says Knight. Yet the C-level executives who listened to her presentations don’t know what a buffer overflow is.

The solution? Use analogies. Tell stories. Explain the concept using items familiar to the audience. Use diagrams. 

Let’s say that your technical explanation relies on computer networks, data transfer rates, and cables. Comparing network traffic to literal road traffic can help them visualize differences in speeds and advancements in technology. 

“My favorite analogy is that a network is very porous,” Knight says, “It’s like a river, I explain, and there are all sorts of inlets to a river.” Then the audience can relate the analogy to something they know. “That’s how a network is and how an adversary gets in,” Knight would tell her non-technical audience.

Omit needless buzzwords

Minimize the jargon. Too many techies assume that everyone speaks the same language that they do, but their language is as specialized and esoteric as is a doctor’s or accountant’s. If you explain what a whatzit and gizmo are, and what they do, and why they need to be connected up, most people can follow along.

Of course, sometimes you’re presenting to a person where some level of technology knowledge is assumed. You can use some jargon, but use less than what you assume the audience knows. Pay close attention to the audience’s response; you don’t want to appear condescending. 

When you decide to include technical terms, explain what each term means the first time you use it. If it’s usually spoken as an acronym, introduce both the term and its shortcut (“To communicate with the other system, we use an application programmer interface – it’s called an API”) so that the listeners don’t get lost trying to keep track. 

Are you talking about software quality topics? It might be a good idea to come up to speed on the technical terms. Start with a review of our QA glossary .

Instead, show relationships. Show charts and graphs, particularly when they demonstrate relationships between concepts. 

Fred Bartlett, a senior analyst at Penguin Random House, makes sure that his graphs look familiar to the people viewing them – which for his organization means a trend line. “We use different colors, and plot on different axes,” he explains. “You have to show what will come out most clearly to someone looking at it for the first time.”

Did they understand you?

Find out if you’re reaching them. Don’t just talk. Ask questions, to find out if you already lost them in the dust… and to give yourself an opportunity to retrieve them from the dust.

When you plan your presentation, include time for questions. If what you’re asking for is important and new, there are sure to be questions. Depending on the subject, it may be wise to solicit questions after each section, rather than wait until the end of the presentation. 

Recognize that the audience may be embarrassed about its ignorance, particularly if they are accomplished people who don’t want to look dumb in front of professional colleagues. “Pass out note cards that people can write questions on,” advises telco and antitrust attorney Paul Overbite. Even if they’re embarrassed, he says, “They'll write down their questions as an anonymous note.”

Don’t forget the takeaway

There’s a reason you’re making this presentation. Make sure it’s clear to the audience what that reason is, and explicitly state the one thing you want them to understand by the end.

Be clear about what you want. Even if you don’t succeed in enlightening the audience about the technology, you might convey your dedication and passion enough to sell them on giving you your heart’s desire. The listener may not end up understanding network topology, but she may conclude that you know – and that your opinion can be trusted. 

What facts do you need to tell the story that’s contained in your presentation? If this is a request for additional funding, then you need to describe what you’re accomplished, what you need to do next, how much it will cost to do that, and a timeline. 

For example, when Bartlett needed to upgrade some business systems, he ignored any presentation of the underlying algorithm. “We just focused on the solution. We showed a graph, and then another graph on what would happen if we implemented to the solution. Then we had to discuss what it would take and how many people it would take. Because we had the graphs, it was easy to get past it.” 

However hard you work to make the technical information easy to digest, acknowledge that the audience might need to study it later, on their own, in order to grasp the message. Handouts and follow-up email messages can help, particularly if they stress the takeaway. 

“I email the link of the things I’ve talked about,” says Rob Pegoraro, a business writer for USA Today and Fast Company who does frequent presentations. “I use the main points on a slide and then do handouts.” Give the audience an opportunity to look up the information afterwards, so give them links. “Emailing the presentation is also good,” he adds. 

So really, a winning presentation has two goals. The first is to keep your audience engaged enough to listen. The second goal is to provide them the information they need, in a way that makes sense to them, so that they can make the decision you hope they will make. It’s not rocket science, but it does require knowing to whom you’re presenting, and knowing their viewpoint well enough to explain your point in a way they understand. 

by Wayne Rash

Wayne Rash is based in Washington and has been writing about science and technology for nearly 40 years. He is a contributor to Forbes.com and a columnist for eWEEK. He is a frequent speaker on technology and has been a guest on NPR, NBC, PBS, CNN and Fox News.

Similar posts

Popular posts

6 ways to improve your debugging skills

27 Selective QA Interview Questions for Managers to Ask

So you want to become a software QA professional?

A glossary of testing terms

Alpha testing vs Beta testing. Why they matter for you

Software testability – what it is and how to improve it

What Is Gherkin + How Do You Write Gherkin Tests?

The Day to Day Activities of A QA Tester

1-800-826-5051

1255 Treat Blvd Suite 300, Walnut Creek, CA 94597

• Product Overview
• Generative AI
• Integrations
• Natural Language
• Self-Healing
• Data Science
• Visual Testing
• End-to-end Testing
• Cross-browser
• Performance Metrics
• Automated Testing
• Certification
• White Papers
• Case Studies
• In the media

© 2024 Functionize, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Support Policies | Data Retention Policy

How to Explain Technical Concepts to a Non-Technical Audience

Like it or not, techies are getting pushed out from the backroom to the front lines. Increasingly, you find yourself standing in front of non-technical audiences – customers, C-suite members, finance, cross-functional team members, and other stakeholders – expected to explain tech concepts in simple terms.

Need some help? Here are six proven strategies you can use to communicate tech concepts to a non-technical audience effectively.

Establish relevance upfront

Your audience will be much more receptive to your information if they understand how it will impact them. Sure, you want to explain the process roadmap, but it may be a good idea to begin by explaining the point of arrival.

Preparation is the key here. Do your homework beforehand to understand what will be considered relevant information by the audience, and then craft your presentation to address the what’s-in-it-for-me question upfront and early on in the interaction.

Avoid information overload

While you may have a lot of information to share, cramming every detail down the audience’s throat will not help.

Be selective and keep paring the content. Consider what is essential to the audience. Try and anticipate the questions they will ask. And then, remember to stay focused on the most important and relevant points during the discussion.

Been asked to assess one cybersecurity tool against another in a limited time? Instead of contrasting the technology that powers the tools, focus on how the tools will translate into ROI, risk mitigation, and functionality.

Tell a Story

Everyone loves a good story. So, weave one around your message. Don’t just make a presentation; take the audience on a journey. When planning each slide, see how it will push the presentation’s overall narrative forward.

Incorporate personal anecdotes, examples, and analogies to make your point. If you don’t have any personal stories that relate to the situation, research. Use relatable events to make your case.

Junk the Jargon

The abbreviated terms and domain-specific terminologies that are a second language for you are alien to your audience. You need to ditch the jargon.

Peppering the conversation with lots of technical terms may lead to audience disinterest and disengagement. Instead, try to simplify and explain concepts as much as possible.

If a lot of detail is required, and/or you are unsure about the audience’s technical expertise, distributing a jargon cheat sheet before getting into the presentation/interaction may be a good idea.

Use visuals aids

Why waste half the meeting trying to explain a point when a few pictures can illustrate the point much more quickly.

Visual content is highly effective in communicating technical processes and concepts. As per studies, 65% of people are visual learners. Therefore, visual aids are valuable for helping non-technical audiences understand technical concepts.

Do leverage diagrams, models, and other visual presentation techniques to drive home your point.

Ask for feedback, invite questions

Communication is a two-way street. Along with saying your piece, focus on the audience’s response. Do your listeners have any questions? Are they seem to be following your pace? Look out for implicit cues and seek explicit feedback as well.

Take frequent breaks to invite questions and clarify points. Be respectful of the audience’s technical knowledge limitations.

This content is crafted with care by Artech Staff Authors. While it reflects our commitment to quality and accuracy, please note that it is not authored by industry experts. We aim to offer valuable and engaging information, and for more specialized or technical advice, we recommend consulting with professionals in the relevant field. If you have any concerns or require further assistance, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for trusting Artech as your source of informative content.

You also might be interested in

Mastering the Art of Professional Communication: A Comprehensive Guide

In the professional realm, effective communication serves as the cornerstone[...]

Job Interviews: Your Ultimate Guide

Entering the job market and facing the interview process can[...]

Cover Letter Examples to Inspire Your Application

Crafting a cover letter that catches the eye of a[...]

Recent Posts

• The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Impactful Cover Letters
• Designing Your Application: A Walkthrough of Cover Letter Templates
• Understanding Differences Between CV and Resume
• Building a Successful Career: The Role of Financial, Research, and Programming Skills
• Marketing, Negotiation, and Teamwork: The Triad of Skills for Job Success

© 2024 · Artech LLC.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Artech Employee Online Forum Policy

USA & Canada

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay connected with the latest from Artech

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

The Art of the Technical Presentation: How to Present Technical Topics to Non-Technical People

So, you need to make a technical presentation to people outside of your field. It should be easy, right? All you have to do is let the bounty of your knowledge flow forth. But what if your message gets lost in the gap between your expertise and your audience’s point of view? Find out how to conquer the divide with an artfully designed presentation.

Although great presentations are a mix of education, communication, and collaboration, in the end, they all boil down to persuasion. Luckily, you don’t need a degree in psychology to get through to your listeners. These five tips will help you build a simple presentation that gets your message across, imparts key technical details, and leaves you and your audience feeling like you got what you needed.

Focus on your purpose

What’s the nitty gritty reason why you’re doing this presentation? Whether you’re seeking funding, partnership, a job, or a sale, you’re essentially trying to persuade your audience to take action. 

What do you want them to do when they’ve heard your spiel? Remember this as you plan each step of your presentation, and make sure that every element you add contributes to your purpose. If you notice your content going off on a tangent, cut that part out. Keep it tight, and you’ll keep their attention.

Find the Gap

Once you’ve got a clear purpose in mind, think about why you need to do this presentation. There must be something that your audience doesn’t know or fully appreciate yet, because otherwise they’d already be with you.

But be careful here. A lot of us fall into the trap of thinking they need to hear everything we know. If you take the time now to tease out the information that’s critical to your message, you’ll save yourself from overwhelming your listeners and losing their support. 

What’s the simplest way you can explain the difference between what they’re doing now, and what will happen if they adopt your idea? An infographic can be a powerful and succinct way to make your message hit home, and Beautiful.ai’s templates can make it easy.

One trick that will help you explain technical things in simpler terms is to empathize with your audience. What do they want to get from working with you? Let’s say you’re speaking to investors. They want a return on their investment, right? So you’ll need to highlight facts, figures, and examples that show why your proposal is going to profit them in the end. Think about who you’re speaking to, and how cooperating with you will make their lives better.

Some other common needs that your project might meet are helping your audience to save time, have less stress, or enjoy better relationships. Make sure you frame your request in terms of how it will benefit your viewers.

Images can be a powerful way to help listeners picture the results that you’re promising in vivid detail. With Beautiful.ai’s image gallery, you’ll have thousands of photos, icons, and visual elements at your fingertips that you can add to your presentation for free. You can also upload your own custom images with an effortless drag and drop.

Keep it short

Another way to make a technical topic easy to digest is to keep your presentation brief. One trick is to create an outline to distill your message into 3-5 key points. Another is to use Guy Kowasaki’s 10/20/20 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, and a minimum of 30 font) to force yourself to be concise.

Some technical presenters check their urge to splurge by only addressing “ what ” their idea will accomplish, rather than the “how”.

And of course, you can save words and pack a stronger punch by incorporating visual elements into your presentation. Beautiful.ai has templates to help you easily build a pictograph or specialized slide with a Venn diagram, flowchart, bar graph, and more to make your point in fewer words with a greater lasting impression. 

Did you know that people remember things they learned with an accompanying visual over 6x longer than information they only heard verbally?

Use good design

Although you can insert good information into any presentation maker, even the most brilliant thoughts will be lost on your audience if the styling doesn’t flow. Awkward spacing, inconsistent colors and fonts, and illegible sizing are hugely distracting to your audience and can steal your thunder in a heartbeat.

Beautiful.ai uses smart slides technology to automatically adjust these elements on every slide. Whether you work with our templates for slides and presentations or customize a look that’s all your own, no matter what images or elements you add, the rules of good design will be applied. Your slides will come out balanced and beautiful and your message will be crystal clear. It’s like having a pro designer fixing each slide as you work.

No more all-night formatting battles or embarrassing, cluttered messes. Just powerful presentations that persuade your audience and make you proud.

When all is said and done, your technical presentation can get through to non-technical people if you stay focused on your purpose, bridge the gap between what they already know and what they need to learn to get on-board with your plan, empathize with their needs, and boil your message down into its most persuasive elements.

You can make an outstanding impact with even the most technical presentations if you start with an intelligent plan and use specialized design tools like Beautiful.ai. Try it today.

Beautiful.ai Team

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation tool that makes it fast and easy for anyone to build clean, modern and professionally designed slides that they can be proud of.

Recommended Articles

4 TED Talks for Your Next Big Pitch

The Top PowerPoint Alternatives in 2024

How to Establish a Branding Template for Your Team's Presentations

The Top 7 Slide Templates That Will Transform Any Presentation

These cookies are required for the website to run and cannot be switched off. Such cookies are only set in response to actions made by you such as language, currency, login session, privacy preferences. You can set your browser to block these cookies but this might affect the way our site is working.

These cookies are usually set by our marketing and advertising partners. They may be used by them to build a profile of your interest and later show you relevant ads. If you do not allow these cookies you will not experience targeted ads for your interests.

These cookies enable our website to offer additional functions and personal settings. They can be set by us or by third-party service providers that we have placed on our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, these services may not work properly.

These cookies allow us to measure visitors traffic and see traffic sources by collecting information in data sets. They also help us understand which products and actions are more popular than others.

• PowerSpeaking ® Get an Expert Foundation
• HighTechSpeaking ® Make Technical Data Come Alive
• Speaking Up: Presenting to Decision Makers ® Win Over Senior Executives
• SalesSpeaking ® Make the Sale
• ConferenceSpeaking™ Prepare for a Speaking Event
• Be Clear, Be Confident, Be Courageous Confident Speaking for Women
• Storytelling Course Tell Stories that Captivate
• Facilitation
• Facilitators
• Management & Staff
• Board Members
• Learning Hub
• PowerSpeaking Live!

Presentations

Communication, facilitation, targeted learning, ​powerspeaking blog: tips and strategies for crafting presentations, deliver more powerful technical presentations: 8 techniques.

by Ralf Wolter     Aug 4, 2022 1:36:00 PM

Before moving into training and coaching, I was an IT Consulting Engineer for 25-plus years.  To this day, I have a left-brain bent.  But I remember the experience that changed my perspective on what makes a powerful technical communicator (hint: it involves both hemispheres).

I was watching a very senior engineer at Cisco give a technical presentation.  This engineer was so senior and well-regarded, he held a prestigious Fellow position at the high-tech company.  

What struck me was that he was so good at illustrating his points and keeping the audience rapt.  I approached him after his talk and asked him, ‘What’s your secret sauce?’  He said, ‘Whenever I give a technical talk, I start by explaining in a way that my mum would understand it.’

I really liked the way he dove into deep technical detail only after he introduced the concepts with brief, compelling stories and vivid analogies.  To me, that was a perfect way to make sure everyone understands what you’re talking about, without dumbing down the content.

What I’ve learned since then is that this kind of approach to technical presenting doesn’t take away from the content expert’s credibility; as a matter of fact, it adds to it, especially if they’re addressing a mixed audience.

Delivering clear, complex data in a meaningful way to the people and businesses impacted is more important than ever—at work and in our communities.  

To do it well, you might need to rethink some of the hallmark left-brain preconceptions about how to craft and deliver your talk.  But trust me, it’s well worth the journey.

Here are our top pointers . . .

1. Start With Your Audience in Mind

Who are you presenting to, and how is your main message or proposal relevant to them?  How much detail do they really want or need? Your technical peers might be happy to dive into lots of detailed data.  But how about a mixed audience of engineers, salespeople, and potential customers?  Or maybe senior executives , who just want the bottom line?

For example, let’s say you’re presenting to a mixed audience. The best strategy would be to organize your presentation so you begin with a big-picture overview and main message/proposal for the non-technical people; then a strategic level of detail for technical managers and technical specialists outside your area; and last, a deep dive for content experts who are familiar with your work.  

Senior-level executives prefer content focused on the overall impact of your data or proposal: the cost, ROI, and benefits. They want the high-level view, with executive summaries, solutions, and future business implications. (Check out our downloadable PDF, “ How to Present to Executives: 23 Proven Tips ”)

Non-technical audiences and technical people in different disciplines also appreciate higher-level content.  In addition, they typically want to know how what you’re presenting will affect them directly.  Will it impact their workload or priorities?  Will it delay other projects they’re working on?  Will it shift roles or responsibilities?

Technical audiences want content rich in detailed data analysis, design specifications, theory, and statistics. They expect you to know the jargon and to use technical terms. They want to know about the research behind your data, and they appreciate information such as algorithms, process-flow diagrams, feature lists, and coding examples.

One presenter we worked with noted that with mixed audiences, he starts by announcing, "Today, I'll be doing a split-level presentation. The first 10 minutes will be a big-picture, market-focused summary. In the next 10 minutes, I will provide an overview of the technology involved. In the last 10 minutes I will go into the detail and present the results of our code review. Feel free to leave before the next level of detail if that is not what you want."

So remember, consider your audience before you get too far in crafting your presentation.  By doing so, you will be more . . .

Engaging By directing your presentation to the audience’s needs, you’ll increase attention and retention.

Efficient By creating an audience-centric presentation from the start, you’ll find it easier to plan and deliver a relevant and memorable talk.

Effective By communicating an action the audience can take as a result of the presentation, you’ll have a greater impact (we go into this in “Identify an Action Step,” below).

Here’s a helpful Audience Analysis checklist we developed for workshop participants.

Next, what do you want the audience to do with the data you’re presenting? 

2. Identify an Action Step

Once you’ve analyzed your audience, the next best step is to ask yourself, "What do I want the audience to do, think, or feel as a result of hearing this presentation?" 

One common mistake many presenters make is to assume the audience understands what they’re being asked to do.  Unless your request is clear and concrete, you risk creating confusion and losing their support.

Here are some quick examples of effective vs. ineffective action steps . . .

Now it’s time to dive into the core content of your presentation . . .

3. Develop a Clear Main Message

Even if you have complex ideas or data to discuss, your presentation should have a clearly stated central purpose or key message.  Why are you presenting the data?  What do you want your audience to remember?  

A short, clear, and compelling main message accomplishes several important things . . .

Here are some best practices for developing your main message so it’s clear and memorable . . .

As PowerSpeaking, Inc. Master Facilitator Rita Williams emphasized in the video, repetition of your main message—word for word—is key.  Research has shown that people are much more likely to retain your clear, concise main message if you repeat it at least three times throughout your presentation, at the beginning, middle, and end.

Once you’ve analyzed your audience, identified an action step, and crafted your main message, it’s time to turn to the substance of your presentation . . .

4. Make Your Content Relatable and Memorable

Maybe you want to get a group of teams fired up about the next phase of product development.  Perhaps you need to enlist support from other departments to make a system change. Or maybe your team needs budget approval from senior management to launch a new project.

No matter your purpose, you’re far more likely to succeed if you help your audience relate to your content and remember (and maybe act on) it after the presentation is over.

We’ve found that the best way to do that is to craft a technical presentation that balances analytical and anecdotal evidence— and connects with people on a human level.

Analytical Evidence: Facts and Figures

Analytical evidence is typically evidence drawn from statistical information—especially data collected by systematic methods. for example, the number of component failures reported in a quarter, the percentage of people who had adverse reactions to a new drug, or the roi on a new service offering over a specified period of time would all be considered analytical data. , anecdotal evidence: stories, analogies, case studies, examples.

Anecdotal evidence tells a story rather than drawing solely on numbers or percentages. Examples:  A story about how a seriously ill patient responded to a new drug, reading a letter from a satisfied customer, or talking about an experience you had when calling your own company for customer service. 

Some technical people in our workshops bristle at the idea of storytelling or, as they’ll say, “trying to be entertaining.”  But being an entertainer isn’t the point here.  The point is that we’re all human, and images, metaphors, and stories spark our interest and lodge in our memories more easily than facts and figures alone.

  “In fact, the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere, compared with the size of the Earth, is in about the same ratio as the thickness of a coat of shellac on a schoolroom globe is to the diameter of the globe. That's the air that nurtures us and almost all other life on Earth, that protects us from deadly ultraviolet light from the sun, that through the greenhouse effect brings the surface temperature above the freezing point.”   

In his book “Actual Minds, Possible Worlds,” psychologist Jerome Bruner estimated that facts are about 22 times more memorable when they are delivered via a story.  

When the brain sees or hears a story, it mimics the pattern of the writer’s or speaker's brain. This is known as neural coupling, where in effect,  the storyteller literally shares their sensory experience with another person.  (A much more memorable experience than looking at a spreadsheet in a slide presentation.)

“ You cannot reach a person's head without first touching their heart, and the path to the heart runs through the brain, starting with the amygdala . . . We now know which brain chemicals make us pay attention to a speaker (cortisol) and which make us feel empathy toward another person (oxytocin)." — Carmine Gallo, "Storyteller's Secret.”

  “ You can’t play tennis with a bowling ball.”  

So, remember that research proves you will increase the impact of your data and your message by reaching people through their hearts and minds .

Next, use the power of imagery to help people understand and remember key points . . .

5. Be Creative With Visual Aids

Whether you’re presenting in person or virtually, there are several ways you can hold people’s interest and drive home your message by getting creative with visuals.

Add Imagery to Explain Data

You already know not to clobber your audience with endless data-dense slides, right?  Good.  The more you can convey data/key messages via imagery, the more engaging and memorable your content will be.

Here are a few more examples of combining simple, powerful images with (few) words to deliver a message . . .

Don’t Limit Yourself to Slides

Think about introducing a variety of visual aids to make your presentation more interesting . . .

Whiteboards : A virtual whiteboard or an in-person flip-chart are still great ways to emphasize key points, capture audience feedback or questions, or explain a concept. 

Props: Use props to illustrate a key metaphor or idea from your presentation. A world globe could help illustrate the global marketplace, or an apple could evoke preventive health care (“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”) 

Handouts: A handout allows the audience to take something back to work that can be used as a reference or summary of your content.

Video Clips: These are a great way to break the monotony of still slides, and often introduce a more human factor to the topic. 

6. Use Pattern Disruption to Hold Attention

There’s nothing like breaking a pattern to snap people back to attention.  Think of a presenter who suddenly turns off the screen or introduces music.  Or how about a presenter who’s been talking for five minutes then suddenly . . . stops.  Silence, for like 30 seconds.  You’d look up, right?

Consider places in your presentation where people might need something fresh to keep them engaged.  Some examples . . .

• Stories and analogies
• Video clips or sound recordings
• Style changes (vocal, movement, gestures, pausing)
• Blanking the screen
• Visuals (graphics, illustrations, images)
• Audience participation (small group discussion, brainstorming)

Next, let’s look at one aspect of successful presenting that causes many techies to roll their eyes:  an engaging delivery style.  

Stay with me.  It’s relatively painless . . .

7. Don't Underestimate the Power of Style

A speaker who stands statue-still, stares at their slides or notes, and speaks in a monotone is enough to put anyone to sleep—no matter how interesting the content.  

Remember, even scientists, engineers, and system programmers are human.  And research has shown that we humans are moved by nonverbal communication.  We “read” a lot into its presence or absence, which means it can either obscure or make clear what we’re saying out loud.

“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you’re preparing to make a presentation or give a talk, it’s likely you do what most people do: focus solely on your content. While what you have to say is definitely key, how you say it—through nonverbal “language”—is a lot more important than you might think.

Research has shown repeatedly that your posture, gestures, facial expressions, and the tone and cadence of your voice play a huge role not only in getting your message across to an audience, but also, in engaging them, building trust, and increasing your credibility.

Your tone of voice, for example, has a big impact on how your content is received. 

Not being able to hear a speaker, either because of poor audio or a too-soft voice, isn’t just an annoyance. In a USC study that looked at the effects of poor audio in scientific presentations, they found that, “When the video was difficult to hear, viewers thought the talk was worse, the speaker less intelligent and less likable, and the research less important.”

Speaking in a dreary monotone is another way to lose your audience.  Watch how to avoid it and instead, create energy and interest . . .

source: Great Speech Writing, "How to Avoid Speaking in a Monotone," via YouTube

If you’d like more tips on making nonverbal communication work for you, check out our blog, “ Use the Power of Nonverbal Communication to Connect with Your Audience: 7 Tips .”

8. Bring Your Authentic Self to the Table

Speaking of the human factor when it comes to presentations, know that authenticity, openness, and passion go a long way in engaging your audience, building trust—and yes, even establishing your credibility. 

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson once revealed her childhood passion for numbers in a very simple, relatable way . . .

“I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed ... anything that could be counted, I did.” 

Now, if you had been in the audience when she led with that, she’d have your attention, right?  

No matter how complex the data or the message, an audience-centric, authentic, human approach is a good place to start.

Join Us in Conversation . . .

Communicate a Powerful Presence!

Thursday, november 21, 2024, 9-10:00 a.m. pt/12-1:00 p.m. et/5-6:00 p.m. bst.

Julia Kraft

Founder, speak to inspire.

Monica Poindexter

Consultant/advisory board member.

Communications Manager, Concussion Legacy Foundation

Payal Gandhi Hoon

Master facilitator and coach, powerspeaking, inc..

Karen McDonagh Reynolds

Transformation director & board member, london market joint ventures.

Ralf Wolter

Topics: Effective Technical Presentations

Don’t Miss Out on Insights!

Subscribe to PowerSpeaking Insights to get our blog, best-practice tips, special offers, and more sent directly to your inbox.

Subscribe to PowerSpeaking Insights

Recent Posts

Popular posts.

Address: 1233 Harrison Avenue Redwood City, CA 94062

Fax: 650-631-8660-->

SUBSCRIBE TO POWERSPEAKING INSIGHTS

Get our blog, best-practice tips, special offers, and more sent directly to your inbox. 

Copyright 2024 © PowerSpeaking, Inc. All rights reserved.