Public presentations skill is critical for any software engineer career. But here we have some specials which we must account. This presentation is based on my practical experience as solutions architect and speaker of technology conferences in Ukraine. Its main goal is to help engineers to understand and avoid most frequent pitfalls.

1. Roman Nikitchenko, 06.06.2015
PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS
FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

2. 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
2

3. 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
3

4. Engineer career
development without
public presentation skills
4

5. THEY NEED YOUR ATTENTION
WHY PEOPLE DO PRESENTATIONS?
5

6. WHAT DIFFERS FOR PEOPLE LIKE ENGINEERS?
THEY OFTEN PRESENT TECHNICAL IDEAS
6

7. 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.
7

8. ● … my personal career plan
I don't give a … and I don't
want to change anything
● … roll out plan in 3 months
I think it's impossible but I
can't tell it anyone
But … I was told to present
8

9. YOU KNOW WHAT?
IT DOES NOT
WORK THIS
WAY!
9

10. ONLY THINGS which are
IMPORTANT TO YOU
You can present well
NO EXCLUSIONS
10

11. UNDERSTAND
YOUR GOALS
● Often speaker deserves expert title
● Speaker tries to promote something
important for him
● But declared and real motivation
could be different.
11

12. ● 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
12

13. IS MOTIVATION AND CLEAR IDEA ENOUGH FOR
GOOD PRESENTATION?
THEY ARE JUST REQUIRED
13

14. 14

15. Attention to
technical
details
WHAT IS THE KEY
PROPERTY OF ENGINEER?
15

16. ● 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
16

17. ● 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
17

18. OOPS...
● What to do if electricity
goes down?
● Be ready to present basic
concepts WITHOUT slides
18

19. DON'T OVERLOAD YOUR
SLIDES! 19

20. BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!
Text with important places
highlighted is better than plain
20

21. BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!
Clear short text is better than
detailed long one
21

22. BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!
Good clear picture is better
than text
22

23. BETTER DRAW THAN WRITE!
And even pictures should be as
clean as possible
23

24. ● ONE slide is only for ONE idea
● Base on thesises
One very short sentence
● Provide arguments
If needed, a little bit longer
TEXT ON SLIDES
RULE OF THUMB
24

25. ● Keep light
Static elements on slide eat space and
draw attention from your information
● Keep your hands free
Color scheme dictated by template is
not always good for specific slide
TEMPLATES
SAY
IF YOU CAN
25

26. MUST SPEAK RIGHT LANGUAGE, NOT JUST LOUDER
Engineer speaking to
non-technical
people...
Make your best to keep presentation light
26

27. OTHER COMMON FAILS
Awful
timing Unclear
presentation
structure
Low speech
quality
Wrong knowledge
expected from
auditory
27

28. Any single one from that list
can kill your presentation
28

29. ● 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?
29

30. ● 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
30

31. ● Help yourself with progress marks on
presentation
● My solution is numbers in the corner
generated with macro
TRACK YOUR
PROGRESS IN
CONTENT
31

32. ● 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?
32

33. CLEAR STRUCTURE
HELPS TIMING
33

34. ● 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
34

35. DO YOU REALLY
NEED AGENDA?
35

36. ● Funny illustrations look better
and keep people relaxed
● Properly selected image can
cause proper associations
AVOID ROUTINE
FILLERS
36

37. If presentation does
not win from slide,
remove this slide
KEEP HOUSE CLEAN
37

38. ● 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?
38

39. ● 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?
39

40. COMPLEX
DIAGRAMS
AVOID IF YOU CAN
40

41. Highlight part of
diagram which is most
important for current
slide
COMPLEX
DIAGRAMS
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
Your commands
can have effect
on table regions.
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Direct
communication via
separate protocol.
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Direct
communication via
separate protocol.
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
Your commands
can have effect
on table regions.
41

42. Add complexity in
several slides to limit
new things per slide.
COMPLEX
DIAGRAMS
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Direct
communication via
separate protocol.
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
Your commands
can have effect
on table regions.
RegionServer RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region Region
Response
Endpoint Endpoint
RegionServer
Request (RPC)
Client
Table
Region
Response
Endpoint
42

43. MOST ANNOYING
PRESENTER SPEECH FAIL
MOOOOO....
43

44. ● 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....
44

45. MOST ANNOYING
PRESENTER SPEECH FAIL
MOOOOO....
JUST STOP THIS RACE
AND DO PAUSES
45

46. Don't expect people know every
abbreviation or very specific term
SPEAK
NORMAL
LANGUAGE
46

47. Check you provide needed context so
people can understand your idea
DON'T GUESS, ASK
47

48. 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
48

49. Just pay additional attention for
first slides so you can present
them under any condition
FEAR OF PRESENTATION
49

50. 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.
50

51. INTERNAL
PRESENTATIONS
● 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.
51

52. 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
52

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