Introduction
PowerPoint presentations are a great way to convey information- the format is interactive, visual and the audience generally tends to have a higher retention rate for your messages. Traditionally, there is however tedium associated with building these presentations.
Agile methodology is being rapidly adopted for many cases and PowerPoint presentations are an interesting opportunity. Agile helps creators of presentations work with stakeholders faster and more effectively. Adapting the principles of agile helps in many aspects of building PowerPoint presentations and eases the tedium – even making it fun.
How Agile helps in creating better PowerPoint presentations
Understanding the intent
Before creating a PowerPoint presentation, it is necessary to understand why you are creating one. Are you doing so to introduce a product? Is it for a new idea? Are you presenting a monthly report? Are you teaching something? What is it, knowledge or motivation?
For example, if you are presenting a new product idea, it is important to create a presentation that will create excitement and enthusiasm yet ensure credibility and groundedness.
Target Audience
If the creators know who the intended audience is, it will help them arrange the contents fruitfully. Use of fonts, images, videos, texts, number of slides, language difficulty, etc, are examples of choices to make based on the audience.
For example, if a PowerPoint presentation is being designed for school children, it is advised to include more images, less text and use a font that is interesting to them in a larger size.
Story flow
Sometimes the way slides are arranged is as important as the content within. Agile helps keep things on the desired path by helping the designers ask the right questions on what is the story underlying the presentation. This helps them sequence the content properly.
Getting reviews from the right people
Agile is an iterative methodology and the process and the steps to create the product changes depending on reviews from the right people. If an employer wants to create an eye-catching PowerPoint presentation for his employees regarding workplace security, they need to test the early version with them. This process will help them understand the impact of the presentation.
Taking feedback at regular intervals as the content is developed is critical to the success of the presentation and sits at the heart of Agile.
Faster development
By using Agile techniques presenters can take a lot of guesswork out of the equation. It results in faster development of the presentation and an overall efficient process. The deadlines are met quicker and if there are any unexpected changes, they could be easily incorporated.
For example, if the developers have to guess the target audience’s existing knowledge level for a training presentation, then they would take longer to create a complete presentation.
Results of adopting Agile
The adoption of Agile will not just assist the creators and learners of the PowerPoint presentation but also yield tangible benefits. Here are some that can be immediately realized.
Higher business value
A well-designed and well-conducted PowerPoint presentation helps meet meeting objectives and helps drive progress. If done consistently across the organization, it will result in all-round productivity improvements and generate tremendous value in the organization.
Customer Satisfaction
By co-creating presentations with the stakeholders, the presenters effectively remove surprises and chances of unmet expectations. This results in the audience accepting the messages, resulting in constructive dialogues, builds trust, and eventually improves the satisfaction levels of stakeholders.
Economical
There will be fewer trials and errors, which means fewer resources will be spent on building content. In addition, with the general alignment of ideas, presenters will achieve more out of one presentation and will not have to go back and do a lot of re-work.
The time freed up will help presenters move up the value chain and get more work done, resulting in productivity benefits.
Conclusion
There you have it. Agile helps in creating better PowerPoint presentations. Faster development, more business value, higher customer satisfaction all the while saving you time and money. Moreover, the probability of making the presentation more impactful will be higher, increasing the likelihood of creating the desired impact consistently in the organization. To further boost productivity in building PowerPoint presentations, you can use PowerPoint templates.
