public presentations for software engineers

Roman Nikitchenko, 06.06.2015

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONSFOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

Technology events speaker activity from may 2014 to may 2015:

Roman Nikitchenko

Yes, I am software engineer who has survived and won on this hard trail

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NO PRESENTATION SKILL=

NO WAY TO PRESENT YOUR IDEAS

CodeOther people ideas

?

In software development this means no any carrier growth beyond very limited implementation or support

Very specific requirements

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Engineer career development without public presentation skills

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THEY NEED YOUR ATTENTIONWHY PEOPLE DO PRESENTATIONS?

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WHAT DIFFERS FOR PEOPLE LIKE ENGINEERS?THEY OFTEN PRESENT TECHNICAL IDEAS

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WHY ENGINEERS PRESENT THEIR IDEAS?

To receive visibility and recognition for

what they have done.

To get support and feedback for they plan to do.

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● … my personal career planI don't give a … and I don't want to change anything

● … roll out plan in 3 monthsI think it's impossible but I can't tell it anyone

But … I was told to present

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YOU KNOW WHAT?

IT DOES NOTWORK THIS

WAY!9

ONLY THINGS which are IMPORTANT TO YOU

You can present well

NO EXCLUSIONS10

UNDERSTAND YOUR GOALS

● Often speaker deserves expert title

● Speaker tries to promote something important for him

● But declared and real motivation could be different.

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● Assure you have passion to subject or feel it is really important

● Assure you have clear idea

● If any of previous conditions is not met, handle it

● CANCEL presentation if nothing helps

ARE YOU READY

TO START?STEP BY STEP GUIDE

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IS MOTIVATION AND CLEAR IDEA ENOUGH FOR GOOD PRESENTATION?

THEY ARE JUST REQUIRED

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Attention to technical details

WHAT IS THE KEY PROPERTY OF ENGINEER?

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● Engineers are much strict about details

● If you speak to engineers, be precise

● You can cheat by avoiding digits but pay attention engineers LOVE details

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● Good slides are much more important to illustrate technical concepts than usually

● Engineers are not professional speakers so they heavily rely on slides to keep focus

ENGINEERS NEED SLIDES

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OOPS...● What to do if electricity

goes down?

● Be ready to present basic concepts WITHOUT slides

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DON'T OVERLOAD YOUR SLIDES! 19

BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!Text with important places highlighted is better than plain

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BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!Clear short text is better than detailed long one

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BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!Good clear picture is better than text

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BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!And even pictures should be as clean as possible

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● ONE slide is only for ONE idea

● Base on thesisesOne very short sentence

● Provide argumentsIf needed, a little bit longer

TEXT ON SLIDESRULE OF THUMB

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● Keep lightStatic elements on slide eat space and draw attention from your information

● Keep your hands freeColor scheme dictated by template is not always good for specific slide

TEMPLATESSAY

IF YOU CAN

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MUST SPEAK RIGHT LANGUAGE, NOT JUST LOUDER

Engineer speaking to non-technical people...

Make your best to keep presentation light

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OTHER COMMON FAILS

Awful timing Unclear

presentation structure

Low speech quality

Wrong knowledge expected from auditory

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Any single one from that list can kill your presentation

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● Engineers like their work so loose focus too easy

● They don't prepare speech because they know they understand subject pretty well

WHY TIMING IS SO BAD?

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● Use 'internal' timing only for complex cases, otherwise use wall clock time

● Any visible clock if they are available

● Any phone with clock can be used in any environment

TRACK YOUR PROGRESS IN TIME

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● Help yourself with progress marks on presentation

● My solution is numbers in the corner generated with macro

TRACK YOUR PROGRESS IN CONTENT

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● Progress bar is another option

● But usually it affects slide style

● People can refer to slide by number but not by progress mark

WHY NOT PROGRESS BAR?

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CLEAR STRUCTUREHELPS TIMING

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● Develop from top to bottom.

● Use agile techniques. Combine from blocks.

● When trying your speech, don't repeat ALL presentation. Focus on overall structure and every block.

PRESENTATION LIKE A SOFTWARE

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DO YOU REALLY NEED AGENDA?

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● Funny illustrations look better and keep people relaxed

● Properly selected image can cause proper associations

AVOID ROUTINE FILLERS

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If presentation does not win from slide, remove this slide

KEEP HOUSE CLEAN

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● Summary slide at the end

● People which missed concepts or whole presentation can catch up

● Prepare this slide early to help you keep structure aligned

SO WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED?

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● Some slides are needed more than once

● Top level illustration like periodic system diagram after each subsystem explained

● Important things which could be unclear first but should be understandable later like technology stack

WHY TO REPEAT SLIDES?

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COMPLEX DIAGRAMS

AVOID IF YOU CAN

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Highlight part of diagram which is most important for current slide

COMPLEX DIAGRAMS

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

Your commands can have effect

on table regions.

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Direct communication via separate protocol.

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Direct communication via separate protocol.

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

Your commands can have effect

on table regions.

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Add complexity in several slides to limit new things per slide.

COMPLEX DIAGRAMS

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Direct communication via separate protocol.

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

Your commands can have effect

on table regions.

RegionServer RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region Region

Response

Endpoint Endpoint

RegionServer

Request (RPC)

ClientTable

Region

Response

Endpoint

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MOST ANNOYING PRESENTER SPEECH FAIL

MOOOOO....

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● You are nervous and going as fast as you can

● Your brain needs pause

● But you feel you need to speak

● So...

MOST ANNOYING PRESENTER SPEECH FAIL

MOOOOO....

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MOST ANNOYING PRESENTER SPEECH FAIL

MOOOOO....

JUST STOP THIS RACE AND DO PAUSES

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Don't expect people know every abbreviation or very specific term

SPEAK NORMAL LANGUAGE

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Check you provide needed context so people can understand your idea

DON'T GUESS, ASK

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FEAR OF PRESENTATION

Lot of creatures look at you

No weapon

Single

Open area

ILLUSTRATED

● Previously this situation was always very dangerous

● Your body gives you resources for this “extremal situation”

● You are free to use them or just be afraid

● Don't deny this energy by saying «I don't fear this», you fight with your body

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Just pay additional attention for first slides so you can present

them under any condition

FEAR OF PRESENTATION

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PUBLIC EVENTS● Strict timing is your main enemy. Prefer to have no

interruption, shift questions at the end.

● You don't know your auditory so needed level of details could be questionable. Be ready to adopt.

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INTERNALPRESENTATIONS

● You get more people who are not interested in subject. They can make your life harder.

● On the fly discussions and comments are normal. Account this in your plans.

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LESSONS LEARNED● Low presentation skill is BLOCKER

for software engineer career

● Presentation TOPIC IMPORTANCE for you is required but not sufficient

● Key property of engineering presentation is amount of technical information and much higher importance of SLIDES

● Presentation is to be SCALABLE – from 5 minutes and up to the 1 hour with the same slides

● Keep MODULAR structure so if you fail, you fail only one block

● Focus on clear structure and keep LEVEL OF DETAILS under control

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