In this lesson we get into the presentation design process, but we need to summarize a few of the things that we encounter in the Structure Module because the structure will help us design.

First of all, we need to know our topic. This knowledge is the most essential presentation skill. Secondly, we need to know our audience. We either researched them as individuals or createed personas in case we are encountering a group. And then we understood their wants, their goals, their stakes, and their reasons for being there; we also understood our own, we listed them, and now we can reconcile those lists.

You also know your core transformation and you know that during the course of your presentation you can have even more than one. At this point, it’s a good time to take a sticky note and write down the core transformation in the form of a very, very simple sentence, like “I want my audience to go from X to Y in regards to my topic Z.”

I want to remind you that the core transformation is not your want, it’s not what you want to get from the presentation. The core transformation is not your reason to present and it’s not your call to action either.

The core transformation determines the whole structure of your presentation. You can build the whole presentation around it, and it also determines the most important concept because it’s the moment where you deliver the biggest transformation.

Now that those 4 elements are clear and out of the way, we can actually apply the storytelling structure and climb the mountain that we saw in the Structure Module. Tell your audience who you are, why you are there, why they are there, motivate them to listen, tell them about the transformation and handle their reactions until you can get to the top of the mountain, deliver your climax and start going downhill, provide a summary, to-dos, and then end your presentation.

Summary:

• Start from deep knowledge of audience and topic
• Go on and focus on the core transformation
• And finally, once everything’s clear, start climbing the storytelling mountain

Further Study Materials

• When it comes to presentations what do you struggle with the most?