If you have ever had to give a presentation to a group, you’ve likely had to present metrics. It is easy to fall prey to fancy looking graphs or the idea that the more information, the better.
This covers both graphs and slide decks.
Like my meeting guidelines, I also have some for reports. Here goes:
A report should drive a simple question.
Do we need more resources (people, money)?
Do we need more time?
Is everything on track?
The two kinds of presentation are:
I need to drive a decision.
I need to tell you the results of a prior decision.
Is the display quickly readable? If you hear ‘What am I looking at?’ then you have issues.
Are you showing too much information?
Having more information is fine but you don’t have to show it all at once.
The higher up the chain of command you go, the quicker you need to get to the point.
Put your questions up front.
What do you need from your target audience?
Some senior people want to dive into the weeds. Keep some information in reserve for when you need to do that.
Practice. Show the report to someone who doesn’t know much about the subject matter. How clear is it to them?
Much like meetings, editing is important. Try to make your point in as few slides as possible. That isn’t to say not to be ready for questions. Anticipating possible questions and being able to smoothly go over to them is a very good thing.
If you are showing a slide deck, keep animations to a bare minimum. If you can make your point without the animations, do that. If you are in a hurry, they get annoying fast.
Use the notes section of the slide deck. You can provide additional information in this area when you send the deck to your audience.
Avoid eye-charts. Your graphs and slides should be readable at a distance.