You’ve spent the past days, weeks, months, or possibly years doing a task that your job title demanded, and now it’s finally time to present your findings to your peers, your boss, or both. Regardless of how confident you may be, it’s no mean feat trying to break down complex results to spoon-feed them to those who may not be as au fait with the subject matter as you are. But you must present it, since no task is performed in isolation and without approval and a sign-off from those above you; all your work could be for naught. So, how does one go about this task? In some ways, all you really need is an understanding of the topic and the confidence to stand up in front of others and let them know your findings. But in reality, it’s often a touch trickier than that. If your results are in any way specific to your job or complex by nature, it falls to you to figure out how to get the core message across to those who perhaps aren’t as familiar as you are, without sacrificing any of the hard work and effort you put in to come up with the results.
Visual Simplicity: The 5-Second Rule
If you work on the basis that if it takes longer than five seconds to get a point across, it probably needs working on, you’ll be off to the races. It can seem an almost impossible task, though, especially if the content is complicated or involves a fair amount of explaining, but there is always a way to condense subject matter down into a brief overview. There are even tools that enable you to create diagrams online that will simplify the data into visually pleasing and easy-to-grasp concepts that almost anyone will be able to understand. But what are you supposed to do if you are struggling to concentrate things down into a quick five-second initial pitch? Well, fortunately for all of us, LLMs now exist as a thing, and if you’re careful not to allow these tools to run away and hallucinate, you can enter in your prompts and watch as it does its magic and pop out a neat summary that you can further refine to your own ends. Obviously, the primary caveat to using AI (outside of the hallucination issue) is that you might need to double-check your organization’s rules regarding company data and feeding it into the never-satisfied gaping maw of whatever AI you choose to use.
Contextualize The Data
Context is everything when attempting to put a message across to an audience, be they a consumer or your boss. To achieve this, you ought to look over your results and examine what you’re trying to explain. There are a few types of contexts that you can utilize where they make sense, including:
- Comparative: Here you are comparing data that shows some kind of consequence based on a certain timescale.
- Goal-oriented: If you want to get across the point that you missed or achieved a certain outcome, you can use this context to help give meaning to the numbers.
- Historical/ trends: Although they say that past results don’t automatically predict future outcomes, historical context can give an idea of what worked (or didn’t work) in the past that you might use moving forward.
Use Data To Support, Not Dominate
Data is the lifeblood of the modern corporation, they say, but too much data can lead to information overload with very little in the way of outcomes if not properly used. Data should always and only be used to get across a point, and not the point itself. Think of it as a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
Tailor The Message To Your Audience
OK, so you might read this and ask yourself, “What kind of boring, generic content am I reading?” But just as you might with any other presentation, you have to make sure that it speaks to those on the receiving end. For instance, if your presentation is about falling sales due to poor e-commerce implementation, and you’re pitching possible solutions to the boss and the IT teams, you need to explain your findings in such a way that ensures they’re heeded without offending any involved parties…not such an easy task to simply dive into without a bit of pre-preparation. In other terms, think about who will be attending your meeting and try to get the tone correct from the get-go.
Start With The Outcome, Not The Process
For many who will be in attendance, time will likely be of the essence. Therefore, your game plan should be to save people’s time and make your message as succinct as possible. The best way to get to this point is to start with your results and work backward if needed.
- Lead with the key result/s: By setting foot with the results you’ve discovered and the conclusion you’ve arrived at (good or bad), you will hook your listeners into your pitch and keep their attention.
- Delay the details: More details may be required later down the line, but you can deal with them later. You can even leave the more in-depth answer for a Q&A session if that’s the kind of meeting you’re having.
Translate Results Into Actionable Next Steps
Simply presenting a raft of numbers and jargon to those listening won’t really do much for the bottom line and could serve to frustrate your managers or peers who have taken time out of their schedules. Instead, for each point, try to add potential reasons for the data and solutions that could result in better outcomes.
Anticipate Any Potential Questions That May Be Fielded Your Way
You will likely end the presentation with a round of questions. In some cases, these questions may come up during, but the point is to try to anticipate the sorts of questions that might be asked to deliver concise and pithy answers.
It’s never a straightforward task to stand up in front of a room filled with your superiors and peers to present findings (even worse if the results are poor). But these seven tips should get you started and make you more able to present the data and yourself in a positive light.
