Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

The Art of Talk Design

Melinda Seckington
November 09, 2018
390

The Art of Talk Design

Everywhere you look, stories surround us, and everyone has something that’s worth sharing with others. As speakers, we need to understand how to structure our talks so they can have the best effect on the audiences we are trying to reach. How do you discover the right angle and the right story for a talk? How do you frame your story?

Within tech we know how to approach building a new product: we research our user base, we figure out what and for who we’re trying to create something for and we make sure we constantly iterate on what we’ve come up with. So why aren’t we taking the same approach for our talks?

This talk will examine how to get in the right mindset of examining your talk ideas, and will introduce a framework of how to design and iterate on your talk. It will focus on several exercises and questions to help you create the best talk for the story you’re trying to tell.

Melinda Seckington

November 09, 2018
Tweet

Transcript

  1. Design thinking is a way of thinking deliberately about what

    you’re creating and constantly reacting and reflecting on that Melinda Seckington @mseckington
  2. Five phase model of design thinking: empathise, define, ideate, prototype

    & test. The Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford @mseckington
  3. Exercise - Info Collation: Collate all the info you have

    about: the audience, the format and the topic EMPATHISE
  4. Audience: Write down what you know about the event, the

    organizers, the audience. What is their prior knowledge, and what are they expecting? EMPATHISE
  5. Format: Write down the logistical constraints of your talk. How

    long is the talk slot? Can you do demos? Will you have internet or audio? EMPATHISE
  6. Topic: Write down what you already know about the content

    of the talk. What is the topic/talk title? What is the abstract/ description? What is the key take away? EMPATHISE
  7. Exercise - Think Feel Do: Create a Think Feel Do

    overview. What do you want your target audience to Think, Feel and Do? DEFINE
  8. Think What do you want your audience thinking about? What

    mindset are you trying to change? What will the audience learn? DEFINE Feel How do you want the audience to feel? Inspired to…? Empowered to..? Scared of…? Do What actions do you want the audience to take ? What should they do after the talk?
  9. Think What do you want your audience thinking about? What

    mindset are you trying to change? What will the audience learn? DEFINE Feel How do you want the audience to feel? Inspired to…? Empowered to..? Scared of…? Do What actions do you want the audience to take ? What should they do after the talk?
  10. DEFINE What is Start state of target audience Info collation

    What could be End state of target audience Think Feel Do
  11. DEFINE HOW TO DESIGN For people to understand and be

    encouraged to apply design thinking to create more effective talks
  12. Exercise - Diverge: Write down all possible ideas and topics

    you want to cover. IDEATE Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
  13. Exercise - Converge: Prioritize, filter and cluster. In whichever order

    works for you. IDEATE Keep in mind: Goal statement & Think Feel Do
  14. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End What could be End state of

    target audience What is Start state of target audience
  15. Beginning PROTOTYPE Middle End The Hook The Summary The Main

    Ideas & Journey Grab their attention Convince them why they should listen The Goal The Kick Focus on what will bring the audience closer to your goal Recap the main ideas Give them something to remember
  16. TEST Exercise - Prepare your feedback givers Explain to them

    the context of the talk. Who the target audience is, where you’re giving the talk, what the goal and outcomes of the talk should be.
  17. TEST Exercise - Feedback questions Think about what do you

    want feedback on? If there are parts of your talk that you’re not happy with, ask for specific help.