PowerPoint DIY

PowerPoint presentations are largely a Do-It-Yourself (DIY), bootstrappy creative effort by business presenters.

And I like that.

I find the DIY attitude among business presenters refreshing. It's part of what made PowerPoint so successful -- it took message and design out the realm of "The Man" and put PowerPoint into the hands of "The People".

Hey...according to Microsoft, more than 30 million presentations are made around the world with PowerPoint every day. Over 30 million DIY presentations cannot be wrong!

DIY clearly rules!

• Designers do not want to know this. Designers like to believe that important business presentations need to be designed by professionals.
• Collaborators do not want to hear this. Collaborators want to believe that everyone should have input.
• CEOs do not want to read this. They want to delegate their PowerPoint presentations.

All three approaches are (somewhat) flawed. If you hand your presentation to a designer, you often get a "pretty" presentation with no message, story, or flow. In a collaborator's hands, the "designed by committed" presentation can be confusing. Delegate your presentation, and you risk losing an important part of your presentation: your personality and point of view.

So what's the answer? I'm a collaborator, so naturally I'm biased. But as a collaborator, I recognize the importance of defining roles for each presentation.

Take on the role of the storyteller. Respect the Designer. Respect the Accountant. Respect the CEO. They all have a perspective and point-of-view and wisdom to contribute.

But be honest. You have to tell the accountant that her spreadsheet contains too much information for one slide. You have to tell the ad agency's creative director that his clever visual does nothing to communicate to the audience. You have to tell the CEO that basing a board presentation on a picture of a rainbow is downright flaky. And you have to ask for input before you give your own DIY presentation.

You have to be willing to admit that the emperor may have no clothes. And "naked" does not necessarily make for a great presentation!

Power to the People. Listen, "the People" have done some awful things with PowerPoint over the past few decades. In their exuberance, they have often unwittingly overwhelmed, confused, and/or bored their audiences. (Sometimes simultaneously!)

If you are going the DIY PowerPoint route, bootstrap your way to a successful business presentation by realizing that the audience rules.

They are "the People" that really matter. The Accountant, the designer, the CEO...their input is valuable.

But inevitably, it's the audience, man.

Right on.

¶ 1/01/2007 06:03:00 PM