Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

Check out this ridiculously funny example of how even the life of Winston Churchill can be rendered dry and uninspired by Powerpoint https://www.scribd.com/doc/8714525/Winston-Churchill

For your presentation, why not intersperse engaging/relevant/humorous film clips with the factual/quantitative slides. For example, statistics on exemplary customer service could be punctuated by a clip from "Arthur" featuring Sir John Gielgud's character's humorously obsequious service. Statistics on team members solving customer problems could be punctuated by a clip from "Meatballs" where Bill Murray convinces Rudy to stay in camp. Comparative slides showing competitors who focus on narrow responsibilities and do not expand service to solve customer challenges could be illustrated by a clip from "Hogan's Heroes" where Seargeant Schultz says "I know noth-ing!" Etc.

dont provide data, provide commentary on the data.

Put a spin on it, by presenting it as if you were a TV anchor person presenting election results...

The common thread here is to not report mostly data, graphs, etc., but to dwell on the MEANING of the whole thing. If you come across as an analyst you're dead. Be the senior manager with a big picture strategic view of the research.

If you can, get a copy of Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points. He specifically deals with how to present complex subjects with lots of numbers. Worth reading. It also has several good tools, tips, templates and ideas for creating interesting presentations.

You should give the survey to management before you present. See how their ideas mesh with the customer's ideas.

Michael

Jessica,

From a functional side, what the guys said above - interpret the data versus showing raw data. In particular, DO NOT go page by page on questions that show STRONGLY AGREE, or whatever the highest score is! Include a summary slide up front that includes a list of all those questions that are high. Talk about only those questions that require talking about. When you need to talk about a result, break it down as much as you can to identify why the score was low. Don't forget any cross-correlation - like if people say your product ranks third to the competition and your on time shipment performance ranks low but all other performance parameters rank high, you may want to look at individual reports to see if there's a correlation between overall product rating and on-time shipment performance. After all, everyone can figure out what a 2 out of 7 means, but they won't be able to see the fine details. Those ah-ha moments will make it interesting. If you have previous surveys, make sure you include any trend info if it's important. Aside from a statistical interpretation, you may want to think of including implications. What does the data mean for how the organization is performing? What are the good things? What needs to change to improve on deficiencies? Additionally, if you can get at individual data by customer name, don't forget to look at individual results - especially key customers. As best you can given what you have to work with, interpret/conclude by region, by segment, by product line, etc. Include praise for people or groups who are doing well and talk about how they are doing it. Or better yet, have someone from that group speak about how they are doing it. All that addresses the functional part of the presentation - keeping it at least IMPORTANT, if not interesting.

Presentation style is important too. Motion and voice inflection are key to an interesting presentation. Also, you can assume everyone can read the slide. You don't have to write every word down. Make this a conversation versus a presentation. Ask the audience to give you what they think it means. If they get it right according to your interpretation, you're done. If not, point out information they may not have taken into account. Don't just stand up at the screen. Walk around the room and when you have a question or engage someone, walk up to them. When you are making a point about a slide, make eye contact with one person and keep it there throughout the whole point. Shift to the next person when you start a new point. If the slide is about a certain person's responsibility, engage them by starting off by saying, "Bill, this is one you'll be interested in." Bill will sit up straight and so will everyone else to see why he would be interested. Use mixed media. Have some powerpoint slides for data summaries or charts. However, use flip charts at each side to summarize conclusions and implications about the data. If you have a white board in the room, use it to write down actions you recommend.

As for clever or funny, I did a product presentation using (rock) song titles for each slide. The title reflected the conclusions from the slide in a humorous way. I made a change to a word here or there in the title to make it fit more. My products were industrial motor controls and power transistor drivers. The room was VERY warm (in Florida) and had I played it straight, they group would have surely been asleep. As I went along, they looked forward to the next slide. If you use something like this, you could include a slip of the song prior to the title coming up and then the audience will try to guess what the title is. You could do sitcoms or ala Dragnet "The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent....At 8:13, we got a call about a customer who was dissatisfied. We drove to the location and found...." Dunn da dunn dunt. Dunn da dunn-dunn dunnnnnnnn. You could do it with animals. This slide shows that XYZ company is the 800 pound gorilla. These parameters are our real dogs. This is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. We're fishing for answers here. This feature is our real blue bird. This data shows that our CEO is a real Jack...oops, I better stop there.

A warning here: Clever and funny could take away from the seriousness of the data too. Punchy, relevant, important, conclusive, with recommendations that are well thought through, and presented very well - that will hold interest too.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Oh, one more thing: Practice the presentation four times as long as the presentation. If it's a half hour, practice presenting it at least 2 hours.

Wayde