Lessons from Pentagram #3 (Part I)

Presentations are 80% of your design wins.

May 29, 2023

This is a serie on what I learnt as Senior Data Visualization Designer in Giorgia Lupi’s team at Pentagram. Read Lesson #1 & Lesson 2.

As designers, we were never taught the art of presentation. Yes, even you who presented designs in front of schoolmates too busy checking their phones or too nice to be brutally honest.

Presenting can feel like trying to gracefully exit a room after walking into a glass door.

What if we switched this script?

Effective presentations are our most powerful tool to convince clients of our value. ore powerful than beautifully-drafted emails. By providing context, we can ensure our designs resonate, answer all questions before they are even asked, and leave a lasting impact.

It’s THE solution to the “I don’t like [Insert random element]” personal feedback from confused clients.

5 key steps to prepare a good prez

1. Create a presentation with slides

Well duh.

Tip: make it a couple days before your meeting. Then, revisit it a day or hour before to make sure it still makes sense to you.

2. Start with slides that reminds them of the context and previous decisions

Yeah, we all know you’re excited to see your beautiful data visualizations. But it’s been 2 weeks since the last time you talked to your client.

They may not have had their first coffee of the day. They may be in the middle of the wide-eyes-open-post-lunch-nap… so make it easy on yourself: remind them of any concerns and feedback they shared before, the audience, the goal, the message… etc. Remind them that it isn’t about how they like the design but how efficient your design is.

3. Add suspense and rhythm

If you’ve been taught by scientists how to present, you probably heard the advice “One slide for one minute.”

Fuck. That. Rule.

Example: You are presenting a dashboard that includes four different visuals. Break it into several sections so you can focus on each:

Overall Look & Feel and Organisation
Zoom-in Highlight slide only the first visual: describe why this chart, any design decisions you made and why
Zoom-in Highlight slide on second visual: repeat… until you covered every visual or element that needs attention.

In average, I have between 30 and 60 slides per presentation. Some of them are just one big sentence.

4. Yes, text is your friend

I know, I know. I’m usually anti-text on presentations.

However, there are exceptions to my aversion. Client presentation is one for those.

Text can help you:

Let your audience fully understand what you’re trying to convey even if they’re not fully listening or if they miss something (I have an accent in English and sometimes it makes it hard for people to understand me). Think of it has subtitles for a good movie
Ensure your design decisions are conveyed properly, in case your client has to present your work to their boss, without you being present. You are writing notes for them too.

Tip: Don’t write a full 10 sentences paragraph. Keep it down to simple sentences and bullet points list. Don’t forget you can always separate your slide in separate slides. One for each bullet point.

5. Make beautiful slides

You are a designer after all.

Why is it that your presentation don’t follow a grid, has tight line heights and widows left behind?

Before I leave you to your slides, I should probably make a special shoutout to Phil Cox who always crushed presentation strategy and made me feel so much FOMO I had to improve my game.

Stay tuned for Part II: steps to kick ass during the presentation…

We could all learn from the rise of the Māori Data Sovereignty Movement and their Data Governance Model.

I dream of a creative community-based co-working space like Hafnarhaus.

Netflix got me on Ramit Sethi’s personal finance podcast and blog and I’m obsessed.