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A key ‘soft skill’ for a business analyst is how to deliver a great presentation. Read this article for some practical steps you will be able to do just that.

In surveys about what people fear the most, the most common answer is having to stand in front of people to deliver a presentation. However, knowing how to a great presentation can help business analysts to stand out. Presentation skills are a business analysis core competence.

Ambitious business analysts can take advantage of the fact that so many people don’t want to present in public. Delivering a great presentation to an influential audience can be a career enhancing experience.

Sure, we can all get a bit nervous just before a presentation. One famous speaker admitted that he got butterflies in his stomach before a presentation. But he added, “I taught them to fly in formation”. In this article, we look at some simple ways of getting your butterflies to fly in formation.

As with so many things, from decorating a room to climbing Mount Everest, delivering a great presentation depends on planning and preparation.

Types of presentation

• Inform
• Persuade
• Excite or arouse
• Instruct or teach
• Persuade
• Decision making

What does a great presentation look like?

That depends on the type of presentation. But whatever the type, good and great presentations succeed in their objective. The objective must be clear to everyone, the presenter and the audience.

Great presentations are memorable. TED talks provide some wonderful examples.

Qualities (Take away list)

• Passion
  • But remember, it’s not Shakespeare
  • Don’t overdo the passion
• Knowledge
• Conviction
• Honesty
• Integrity
  • Don’t over promise
  • How qualified are you to make the presentation to this particular audience?
• Authenticity
  • Do you believe in what you are saying?
  • Can you sound convincing?
• Interactive
  • If the size of the audience permits it, engage with them
    • Believe it or not, talking to them will normally help you relax

Planning how to give a memorable presentation.

You want your presentation to be memorable, for the right reasons. Disasters can be memorable, for you and your audience. Plan for success.

In a consultancy that I once worked for, we defined terms of references for our projects with the help of the acronym BOSCARD. We can use the same acronym, more or less, in preparing for our presentations. B0SCARD stands for,

• Background
• Objectives
• Scope
• Constraints
• Authority – Audience
• Responsibility
• Deliverables

Use BOSCARD to plan a memorable presentation

B – Background

• Why are you going to deliver this presentation?
  • Focus on your key messages.

O – Objectives

• What exactly is the purpose of your presentation?
  • Is a presentation really the best way of achieving this?
  • What might you try instead of, or in addition to, the presentation?

S – Scope

• Keep your presentation as short as possible.
• Study a few television advertisements.
  • Note how they deliver their message quickly.
  • Try to achieve this with your presentation.

C – Constraints

• The obvious constraint is time.
  • It is unlikely that you will need to present for more than thirty minutes
  • Typically it will be for a lot less.
• Other constraints may be,
  • Amount of time to prepare the presentation
  • Room layout
    • You want nothing between you and your audience.
      • Be aware that a lectern may become something to hide behind
        • Come out from there
  • Your media and technology
    • If you have slides on a computer, can you control them on from a distance?
      • Use a hand held ‘presenter’
        • That can also help to resolve the issue of what to do with your hands
        • This allows you to move away from your computer and/or lectern and engage with your audience
    • Will the presentation be on built in equipment?
      • Check it out and practice well before the start of the presentation
      • Do you have a contact for a technical support person should the equipment go wrong?

Make sure you understand the constraints. If necessary, make assumptions about them when you start your preparation, but get these confirmed as soon as possible.

A – Authority

Remember that you are the presentation. You have something to say, and you’re there to say it. Slides and visual aids are secondary. Some of my best presentations have had no slides, no visual aids and no handouts; but it takes confidence, and perhaps a bit of experience to feel confident with that.

A – Audience

• The most important thing in the presentation is the audience.
  • You need to know as much about them as possible.
    • Who are they?
    • How many will there be?
      • Small scale and personal?
      • Large scale and formal
    • What are their viewpoints?
    • How senior are they?
    • Why are they coming to your presentation?
    • What are they expecting from you?
    • Do they support the same ideas as you?
    • Have you talked to any of them, informally, about your planned presentation?
      • If not, you should
      • Tell them, in advance, about the presentation you are preparing
      • Find out if you intended audience believe that it is relevant to them
        • This is better than finding out once the presentation has started
        • Do check your ‘facts’, peoples’ feelings, political sensitivity, etc.

R – Responsibility

• Who is going to do what?
  • This is more relevant if you’re going to give a group presentation.
  • You do need to work out which member of your presentation team is going to do what, and when.
• For example,
  • Who is going to introduce and wind up the presentation?
  • What particular topic will each of the speakers handle?
  • Will one person be responsible for controlling the presentation, introducing the speakers?

D – Deliverables

• Divide this section into two.
  • First, consider the things that you will need to create for your delivery, e.g.
    • Speaker’s notes
    • Visual aids
    • Handouts
      • Will these be given out at the start of or at the end of the presentation?
  • Then consider the mental or emotional ‘deliverables’.
    • What feelings do you want your audience to go away with?
    • Are you trying to convince them of something, e.g.
      • To take a certain course of action?
      • That you’re the right person to lead the project team

Creating a structure for your presentation

Divide your presentation into topics, e.g.

1. Introduction
2. The current situation
3. The case for change
4. Options for change
5. Costs
6. Outline project plan

The horizontal skeleton

• Draw a line
  • At the end of the line, write down the total time you have available
• Divide the line into sections to match the list of topics
  • Label each section with the name of one of your topics
• Add an introduction and an ‘outro’
• Review the structure to ensure that it has a logical flow

Add timings to structure

Write down the time available for each section. You may be surprised at how little time you have. For example, suppose your total time is 30 minutes, you can immediately see that you have an average of 5 minutes available for each of your 4 sections plus the intro and outro. Let’s get a bit more precise, with 5 sections plus the intro and outro.

1. Introduction. 2 minutes
2. The current situation. 4 minutes
3. The case for change. 4 minutes
4. Options for a solution, including a recommended option. 10 minutes
5. Costs. 4 minutes
6. Outline project plan. 4 minutes
7. Outro/Summary. 2 minutes

You will probably need to have several goes to optimise your timings.

Don’t forget to allow time for questions.

Speakers are often worried that they will not have enough to say. Their response is to prepare too much material.

Unless you’re a celebrity speaker, your problem will be, deciding what to cut out in order to meet the time constraints.

Key points

Write down the key point or points for each section. Given the time available, you will only need between 1 and 3 of these per section. Try this out for yourself by expanding the above example.

Decide how much time you will need for each key point. Have you go too many points?

Developing your content

What do you need to say about each key point? Again thinking about the time available, you are likely to be trying to cut things out.

Your notes

These are the key points that you have already created. If you know your subject, you will not need anything more detailed.

Write each key point on a card.

Make the text large enough to read at a glance, even from a distance of say a couple of metres. During the presentation, you might leave these key word notes on a flat surface. This gives you the freedom to move around, focussed on your audience and your hands free.

If it makes you more comfortable, keep the card or cards in your hand. A quick glance at each one should be enough to keep your talk flowing smoothly.

Slides/Visual aids

Try to capture each of the key points as an image or diagram. Keep additional text to a minimum. Diagrams should be very simple and easy to understand.

If you are using PowerPoint or a similar application, start by creating your structure, i.e. your key sections.

Add your keywords in the notes section of the slide.

Similarly to what was described earlier, try to represent the notes with an image. The keyword itself might appear on the slide. That’s the only text you are likely to need.

Quality check

Don’t forget to do a a quality check on your slides.

• Go through them, speaking out loud.
• Time yourself; do you have enough/too much material?
• Check your spelling.
• Get someone else to do a quality check.

Rehearsals

At least one rehearsal is essential. Aim for two or three.

Check your timings. You are likely to surprise yourself by overrunning. Try to have a large clock at the back of the room. Alternatively, have a smaller one close enough to you to be easily readable. Constantly glancing at your watch or mobile is not a good look.

Checking your notes

Remember that your notes should consist of just one or two keywords per card.

Place the cards on a flat surface such as a desk. Make sure you can read the keywords from a couple of metres away. This gives you the freedom to engage with your audience. Read the keyword and talk freely, but not so freely that you forget the time.

It’s probably best not to hold your notes; your nerves may cause your hand to shake.

Don’t practice in front of a mirror.

Practicing in front of a mirror can lead to exaggerated actions and speech. Ideally go through your presentation in front of one or two people; they can give you objective feedback.

Delivering that killer presentation

Arrive early – Check equipment

It’s important to arrive early to give yourself time to check the equipment. Things have a habit of going wrong at the last minute

Nerves

• Try deep breathing. Breath in, hold, breath out
• Pour out a glass of water in advance.
  • Take your first sips before facing your audience
    • If your hand is shaking, it’s probably best to leave the water until afterwards
      

The opening

Keep the opening short and focussed.

The opening should briefly tell the audience what to expect from the presentation.

You have probably heard the suggestion to open with a bit of humour. You don’t need to. The audience is not there for entertainment. It’s easy to get humour wrong or set the wrong tone.

Sometimes you can use a bit of humour in response to a question, but again be very careful. Not everyone will share your sense of what is funny. If you are a natural with a sharp wit, by all means use it. Remember, there’s a difference between wit and a joke. With wit, if you don’t get a laugh you can move straight on as though you had not intended it to be funny. When jokes fall flat, everyone notices and you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

The body of the presentation

Go through the topics as planned, keeping an eye on the time.

Be prepared to take questions as you go. Some speakers ask their audience to wait until the end. Unless you are really tight on time, this is not usually the best approach. Get a question can actually relax you. You are now talking informally to your audience. But don’t talk too much, don’t over elaborate and don’t start giving information that has not been asked for. All those things are likely to give you timing problems.

If you don’t know the answer to a question, say that you don’t know. Thank the person for the question, make a note of it, and promise to get back to them with an answer. Of course, if the question is out of scope for the talk, or out of your area of responsibility, explain that.

The ending

Provide a brief summary. If relevant, offer a conclusion or recommendation. The ending should come naturally from the opening and body of the talk.

Ask if there are any further questions.

Finally, remember to thank the audience.

The details. Like an appendix. Hand out afterward.

After the presentation

Asking for feedback on how it went, but not immediately. Adrenaline may be pumping. Leave it for at least a day.

You probably know how it went, but sometimes you get a surprise, good or bad.

If it didn’t go well? Keep learning. Even the best speakers have talks that they prefer to forget.

Key take aways from this article

Planning and Preparation

• Define your objectives: Be clear about what you want to achieve with the presentation.
• Know your audience: Tailor your content and delivery style to their interests and knowledge level.
• Structure your presentation: Create a logical flow with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
• Develop strong content: Focus on key points and use visuals effectively.

Delivery

• Manage your nerves: Practice deep breathing and use relaxation techniques.
• Start strong: Capture the audience’s attention with a clear and concise opening.
• Maintain eye contact and speak confidently: Engage with your audience and avoid monotonous delivery.
• Be prepared for questions: Answer them directly and honestly, even if you don’t know everything.
• End gracefully: Briefly summarize your key points and thank the audience.

Additional Tips

• Practice, practice, practice: Rehearse your presentation multiple times to refine your delivery.
• Arrive early: Check the equipment and ensure everything is set up correctly.
• Seek feedback: Ask for constructive criticism from colleagues or friends to improve your future presentations.