The Seven C's of Great Design Presentations

I spend a lot of my time at work presenting design work, whether it’s in the concept, design, or production stage. I’ve had great presentations, good presentations, bad presentations, and train-wreck presentations. Along the way, I’ve observed that there’s a few aspects great presentations have.

The work needs to resonate with the audience. The problem, the solution, the pain - it needs to ladder up to something. The opposite of compelling is - who cares? Translate the passion you feel for the problem into your communication.

The presentation and the experience shown must make sense together and make sense. They should form a whole.

The presentation and experience should be tangible wherever possible, this will contribute to clarity and coherence as well.

Communication of presentation and experience should be as explicit as possible, making it clear what’s in/out. It should not ambiguous what this work puts forward. Being clear about what's in and what's out creates a frame that everyone can discuss, debate, and collectively decide upon.

Points should be communicated without mincing words / muddling ideas. Ambiguity which avoid conflict is antithetical to progress. Tell it like you think it is, and put your stake in the ground firmly. If you aren't able to put a stake in the ground firmly, perhaps it's still too early to present.

Take on no more than you need to solve the problem well. Focus on increments, milestones, and ways of chunking to break the problem down into something that can be addressed cleanly where possible. 

Getting ideas through the first time is unlikely. If you believe firmly in the concept, find other ways to approach the execution, if you believe in the execution, show stakeholders how much you care and make it feel as real as you can. Show them how close we actually are to being able to solve this problem.