Writing Your Presentation

Content Structure

Take the audience on a narrative journey:

• Landscape: what exists. In my presentation, the landscape was “A lot of web pages load slowly.”
• Analysis: what you, the presenter, want to highlight for the audience about that landscape. “This poor performance creates a poor user experience.”
• Problem: the core issue based on your analysis. “Studies have shown a correlation between a slow site and decreased engagement, which isn’t what website owners want.”
• Options: what we could do. “We could ignore it! Or we could speed up the site in these ways.”
• Solution: the best option and how it works. This was the bulk of my talk, walking through all the ways to improve front-end performance.
• Reasons: why the audience should believe you. “Completing this work sped up the site by 35% and increased conversions by 7%.”
• Bigger idea: why this concept matters even if it seems irrelevant to an audience member’s work. “Even if you think your site is fast, what’s the experience for your users on slower infrastructure, outdated mobile networks, or older devices?”

remote tip

If practicing in front of people is less than comfortable, but you’d like feedback on narrative, word choice, or other non-body-language aspects of the presentation, consider recording a dry run privately. My coworker Ian Malpass practices alone, records his talk on his computer, and then sends it to others to get their thoughts asynchronously. This lets him dedicate time and focus to each separate activity (practicing, receiving feedback), and gives him the mental space to shift gears.