Michael Roller

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

As a consultant, our business lives and dies with each presentation. Each time we speak with a client, no matter how formal or informal, it is an opportunity to leave an impression that inspires them to ask us for help solving with their latest challenge. I also stress the importance of the public speaking to my students, and I often cite Steve Jobs as the best source of inspiration. Jobs is a great example for design students because he must always relate his message back to something tangible, whether it is one of Apple’s interfaces, products, or a retail experiences. The keynote of the original iPhone is my gold standard for tone, structure, and details of how a student should present their own work.

Recently, my design director lent me a copy of Carmine Gallo’s The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. This is the second book on presentations that I’ve read in as many years, the other being Jerry Weissman’s Presenting To Win. Where the latter is a better reference, Gallo’s book is filled with inspiring examples, most of which can be reviewed on YouTube. The two books share a lot of the same points on preparation and structure, but there are some nice additions that come out when specifically studying Jobs.

Plan Plan Plan

As with many books on presentation, Gallo recommends that planning for a presentation is best done on paper, not on powerpoint. Jobs is a relentless planner, not a natural. A good presentation answers the questions, “What’s the one thing that matters most?” and “Why should you care?” for it’s audience. I’ll continue to promote this point only until I stop hearing speeches that fail to answer these questions.

Be The Protagonist

Products are not just products, they are solutions to some problem. We designers know better, but too often we forget this when it matters most. Through the lens of storytelling, solutions are the protagonists that save the day. Paint a vivid picture of your audience’s pain point (the antagonist) early in your presentation, always before you present your solution. Finally, end your speeches as Aristotle would, with a call to action.

The Holy Shit Moment

Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Scientist John Media reports, “The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things…it does pay attention to an emotionally-charged event.” Plan a holy shit moment by telling a personal story, revealing some unexpected information, or delivering a demonstration that will be a memorable experience for your audience. Make sure you build up to the moment properly and rehearse to make it come off effortlessly.

Tags: books, consulting, presentations, student work, video

Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team lays a great foundation for how all teams should interact. Like so many good business books, you can read the whole thing on a long flight. The book walks through a “leadership fable” in which a new CEO helps a Silicon Valley startup become a functional, successful team. Here are the five dysfunctions, along with the leader’s role in avoiding them:

Lencioni creates a framework that is easy to remember and  use. Basically, the author shows how seemingly little problems like a lack of trust quickly turn an organization into an ambiguous place without a shared set of common goals. Without shared goals, employees lack direction and can easily become self-serving of their own egos and careers. My only complaint is the relative negativity in the title. The book itself provides plenty of positive messages, but I wish that the leader’s role in building teams would be celebrated even more. It’s impressive to realize that by simply setting a good example and “going first,” leaders can teach their teams to work through the healthy conflict required in creating and achieving those essential common goals.

Check out Patrick Lencioni’s site for more info!

Tags: books, storytelling, teams

Mastery

As a professor in Design Communication, I’m frequently asked about the best ways to improve sketching skills. I always tell my students to read the book Mastery by George Leonard. I go on to explain that the best way to get better is to understand that the path to mastery is not a straight line of consistent improvement. The path is an unpredictable series of plateaus, and the only way to improve is to work regularly and diligently to accelerate the path (see step 2 below).

The Five Keys to Mastery:

1. Surrender to your passion
2. Practice, practice, practice
3. Get a guide
4. Visualize the outcome
5. Play the edge

I’m probably doing a huge injustice to this great book, but i do my best to convince my students to check it out themselves. Having just wrapped up another school quarter, I thought I should revisit it myself and write a post about it. Read more about the five keys to mastery online or get the book. I highly recommend it and I’m glad I was able to revisit these principles through my class.

Tags: books, design tools, philosophy