Home » Judging your own presentations
April 29, 2013
We had a client once who judged his new TV commercial
by first viewing it without sound. How much could he
understand of what was going on? Did it make him want
to find out what was being said? It was a strict test –
some commercials failed, some went back for revision.
We believe you can adopt the same practice for deciding
whether your presentations will work or not.
We receive via e-mail powerpoint presentations without
a script. We normally know the intended audience and
the likely purpose but not the core message.
So we put on our audience’s hat and ask 3 questions?
1. What is the key message in this presentation? This is
the most difficult part because there are often multi
messages and no way to judge their relative importance.
2. Do I like the look of the presentation? Is it attractive
to view? Clear to follow? Am I interested enough to hear
the words? Or is it a very dull reading lesson?
3. What action am I being asked to take? Is there a
benefit for me? Do I care? Does it make a difference?
Will I take the action?
This might sound like a lot of hard work – it is. Why
shouldn’t you be your toughest judge and know your
presentation is worth having the sound on?
