June 15, 2015 at 11:14iPresentation (The Presentation). How Jobs made and delivered presentations
Steve Jobs was the best speaker in the world and made the best product presentations, forcing viewers to "sit on the edges of chairs." The trick is that each of these presentations hides a certain preparation and certain tricks. Karmine Gallo studied the public speaking of Steve Jobs and his preparation for these appearances. As a result, we can read a book that will help you prepare good presentations.
Why this article? Yes, this article does not negate the need to read the source. But personally, I need it as a synopsis: when I once again prepare for a public speech, I will return to this article and quickly remember what is written in the book.
So let's get started.
Jobs wrote the script on paper before embarking on digital instruments. He worked closely with every detail, including preparing descriptive subtitles, slides, demos, and even stage lighting. Most of the best presentation designers recommend starting with a paper sheet.
Bullets (bullets) kill
When you start Power Point, two fields for the header and subtitle are immediately marked for you. This creates a desire to write a bunch of unnecessary text. In addition, Power Point provokes you to use numbered or bulleted lists. But Jobs has no listings in any presentation! Take a piece of paper or a napkin or stand at the whiteboard and begin to ponder the scenario of the performance.
Nine common elements of compelling scenarios:
Start with the feelings of your customers and only then proceed with the technology. For example: “Although it is still a full-fledged Macintosh, we aim it to fulfill the main desire of our users - to go online faster and easier. We also intend it for the education sector: it perfectly matches the wishes of its representatives ... We checked all the products available in this market. We found that they have many common characteristics. The first general characteristic is that they all work insanely slowly, and all use outdated processors. Secondly, they are all equipped with the most miserable monitors ... do not have network devices ... are equipped with outdated I / O devices ... All this means that they have the worst performance and their use creates difficulties and problems. This situation has led us into a terrified horror! So,
Remember that your talk is not about you. People in the audience will ask themselves one question: “How does this affect me personally?” Answer it soon. Here's an example: “The all-new iPod nano gives music lovers the most of what they love about their iPod: doubled memory for the same price, incredible 24-hour battery life and a great aluminum case in five colors.”
Example: "we are here to leave our mark on the universe . " Jobs used this technique when inviting John Scully to work at Apple. Steve said: "You are going to spend my whole life on the sale of sweet water or want to get a chance to change the world?" . Jobs encourages you to do what you like, and this is the secret to his own success. He talks about his products with genuine enthusiasm and this is contagious. “Work takes up most of your life, and the only way you can truly enjoy it is to do what you consider to be great work. And the only way to do an excellent job is to love what you do. If you have not found this, keep looking. Do not stop . "
Destination is an important thing. Millionaire Chris Gardner, who was once just a homeless man spending the night with his two-year-old son on the subway, says: “Find what you love the most and you will push the sunrise to get up and do what you love.”
In this frenzy we see genius
A delightful journey
Interestingly, for example, the CEO of Starbucks believes that their mission is not to simply make coffee, but to create a “third place between home and work.”
Steve Jobs always invented the headlines himself and used them consistently. For example, “Today Apple reinvented the phone” or “MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world.” Jobs spoke and repeated this title several times in his presentation. Then they appeared in advertising materials and the same headlines were used by journalists. And indeed: why trust to come up with a headline for journalists when you yourself can best come up with this headline.
The title lives and reproduces for a long time, so it is important that it be short: no more than 140 characters long. Then any journalist will be able to publish his article with the same title without changes. When the iPod came out , the title was: “1000 songs in your pocket.” The media happily picked up this headline..
Here are a few more examples: “the joy of the Internet, the simplicity of the Macintosh”, “the greenest laptop in the industry”, “the most popular music player in the world - now even better”, “Iphone 3G. Two times faster and two times cheaper ”,“ Keynote. When your presentation is really important to you. ”
“Today we are introducing three revolutionary products.” So begins the presentation of Steve Jobs during the presentation of the iPhone in 2007, he said that now he will present not one product, but three: a touch-sensitive iPod, a mobile phone and a completely new Internet communicator. He then announced that these were not three separate devices, but one.
Thus, Jobs drew a road map: a player, a phone, a communicator, and then followed this map when talking about the iPhone, telling first about one, then about another and then about the third.
Verbal milestones create a roadmap and help your listeners follow the story. Thanks to these points, which, by the way, should be three (maximum four), the audience will be able to imagine where you are now. For example, if you announced three points at the beginning of a speech, and spoke of only two points, the audience will demand a story from you about another point.
You may have an “enemy." Those. some kind of opposite to your product or your company or your ideas. It can be either a competing bad product, or a company following other principles.
Here is what Steve Jobs says in 1984: “Will the Blue Giant dominate the entire computer industry? Was George Orwell right? ”
The hero meets with the villain and must definitely defeat him. In Jobs's classic presentation, you can see the antagonist (problem) presentation that rallies the audience around the hero (solution). For example, when Steve introduced the iPhone, at the beginning of the presentation he presented 4 models of existing smartphones on the market that turned out to be not so smart. Having examined their shortcomings, he went on to a solution.
Prepare a short presentation for an “elevator presentation” with your antagonist problem. In thirty seconds you need to answer four questions:
As soon as you learn to talk about your product in 30 seconds, they will become much more interested in it.
Apple products arrive on time to save the day and make a difference. This is the message that Jobs brings in his speeches. The hero should have a worthy mission, which is not to destroy the villain, but to improve our lives.
When Jobs introduced the iPod, at the very beginning he talked about the fact that music is part of our lives and that it surrounds us. However, in the world of portable players there is no leader and no good solutions. There are CD players (large), flash players (expensive), HDD players (heavy and expensive). Against this background, he represents the hero: “iPod. 1000 songs in your pocket. ” The solution is simple and free of technical jargon. Jobs presents the benefits of the new product based on user needs.
In Apple products, Jobs mercilessly removes features and simplifies everything that can be simplified. The same thing happens with the slides that he prepares. There is nothing superfluous on them. Where most speakers squeeze everything they can into the slide, Steve Jobs deletes, deletes, and deletes.
Recently I was in a comprehensive school at a conference on a healthy lifestyle. Schoolchildren prepared reports and presentations about food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. There I saw an example of a typical speaker with slides. On the slide a bunch of text + bulleted lists + at least one picture. The presenter reads the text directly on the slide. Is that familiar? A lot of modern “speakers” use slides as a legal cheat sheet and read directly on it, not embarrassed by their unpreparedness.
Jobs' presentations are simple, clear, and unlabeled. He completely knows the text of the speech, remembers the sequence of slides and does not look at the screen at all.
On mac presentations prevail: empty space, photos and pictures, simple words.
Dry numbers and technical data alone will not do any good. If you visualize them, there will definitely be benefits. For example, instead of saying that the first iPod had a 5 gigabyte hard drive, Steve Jobs said: “1000 songs in your pocket.” Or like this: “30 GB of memory is enough to store 7500 songs, 25000 photos or 75 hours of video.”
The more complex the idea, the more important it is to use rhetorical techniques to facilitate understanding.
In his presentations, Jobs often said something like: “he's amazingly smart” (about iPhone), “we made the icons on the screen so beautiful that you want to lick them.”
The words that Jobs chose for his speeches are simple (free of jargon), specific (very precise and short) and emotional (using descriptive additions). Example: “This is a MacBook Air. You can feel how thin it is. He has a full size keyboard. Is this not surprising? This is how it looks. Great, isn't it? This is the thinnest laptop in the world ”... Speaking of the Titanium PowerBook laptop:“ I asked you to fasten your seat belts. Now I would like you to fasten your seatbelts with racing straps - over your shoulders. "
Clear your text, avoid jargon and buzzwords, add descriptive words. Be confident in your product and pass this confidence on to your listeners without hesitation.
Human brains require diversity and no one, no matter how good he may be, can long hold the attention of the audience. Jobs' keynote speeches lasted more than an hour and a half and he managed to keep the audience's attention. How? Through diversity - demonstrations, video clips, and guest speakers. Jobs knows what he does not know and invites, for example, Johnny Ive to talk about a new way to make laptops from a solid aluminum plate.
Jobs invited Apple's key partners and even enemies, while remaining the most “bestowing” of the speakers. In order for the show to sparkle, all its participants must shine.
When Johnny Ive and his design team came up with the idea of making the laptop case from a solid metal plate, Jobs, presenting the MacBook, took the details of the case and put them in rows. He gave the opportunity to enjoy kinesthetics.
In general, Jobs devoted the bulk of his keynote speeches to demonstrations. The demonstrations that he did were always interesting, colorful and diluted with jokes. So at the presentation of the iPhone, he made a bully call to Starbucks and jokingly ordered 4000 latte takeaways. This caused laughter in the hall.
Take a short, focused demonstration. If you can bring a person from your team to the demonstration, do it. Imagine something for audiences and for visuals and for kinesthetics.
Apple products are surprising. At the presentation of the MacBook Air, Jobs pulled a laptop from a mail envelope and at that time the audience gasped. The same thing happened when in 2007 Steve showed off the first iPhone and showed how to scroll the screen with his finger. In 2009, Jobs presented the next Mac and the computer at this performance in a synthetic digital voice spoke about himself. People in the hall jumped up and applauded standing.
Think about how you can surprise the audience and create a moment in your speech that the audience will remember for several years.
Get ready to speak and don’t read a piece of paper. Dull, monotonous reading on a piece of paper looks awful and lulls the audience. Jobs on stage maintains eye contact, maintains an open pose, and often uses gestures. He controls the pace, volume of speech and pauses. He pronounces some sentences faster, and some slower. Using the usual speed of speech, he noticeably slows it down when it presents the main news or an important idea that listeners should remember.
Watch some of Jobs's speeches and pay attention to the pace, gestures and tone of voice. There is also a good course “Learning to Speak in Public” from Radislav Gandapas. I recommend watching it.
Jobs rehearsed for hours. Those. many, many hours. One of the Apple executives said that he once went to a rehearsal and had to wait four hours for Jobs to go down from the stage. Jobs' speeches are the result of many weeks of work, the subtlest "orchestration" and massive collective work behind the scenes. The iDVD team spent several hundred hours preparing for the five-minute demonstration. Jobs rehearsed two full days in the presence of product managers who were in contact with him.
Steve spent a lot of time on slides, developing their design personally. On the last day, one or two full runs of performances were held.
If you want to make a good performance, rehearse. In doing so, record your rehearsals on video and watch these videos in order to correct mistakes.
Jobs wears jeans and a black turtleneck. However, this is not a reason to do exactly the same. Jobs didn’t dress like that right away and when they started Apple at Wozniak, Steve put on a three-piece suit and stood at the exhibition as an exemplary businessman. On the cover of 2008 Macworld magazine, he was wearing a brown jacket, brown tie, and white shirt.
This person knew what impression the clothes make and what impression should be made in this particular case. For example, when he went to the bank, he wore an expensive suit from Brioni.
Consider the impression you want to make on the audience and dress appropriately.
PS: After reading the book, I had a desire to make my own presentations and speeches about a healthy lifestyle in the framework of the project “Common cause”much better. Moreover, I had a clear understanding of how this can be done. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the source and try to put Jobs into practice.
I wish you happiness!
Why this article? Yes, this article does not negate the need to read the source. But personally, I need it as a synopsis: when I once again prepare for a public speech, I will return to this article and quickly remember what is written in the book.
So let's get started.
1. Use an analog environment for planning
Jobs wrote the script on paper before embarking on digital instruments. He worked closely with every detail, including preparing descriptive subtitles, slides, demos, and even stage lighting. Most of the best presentation designers recommend starting with a paper sheet.
Bullets (bullets) kill
When you start Power Point, two fields for the header and subtitle are immediately marked for you. This creates a desire to write a bunch of unnecessary text. In addition, Power Point provokes you to use numbered or bulleted lists. But Jobs has no listings in any presentation! Take a piece of paper or a napkin or stand at the whiteboard and begin to ponder the scenario of the performance.
Nine common elements of compelling scenarios:
- Short and rich title <= 140 characters. For example: "Apple invented the phone today."
- Incendiary statement. "I am enthusiastic about this product because ..."
- Three key message ideas. Write on paper the three key ideas your audience needs. They should be such that people can remember them themselves, without looking at notebooks.
- Metaphors and analogies . “A computer is the equivalent of a bicycle for the brain” or “[iTunes for Windows] is like giving a glass of cold water to a person in hellish hell.”
- Demonstrations. Steve very often showed himself the things that he thought should be shown. The product could have dozens of functions, but it selected only a part of them, got up from the stands and showed how they work.
- Partners. Share the scene with key partners. For Jobs, it was Madonna, Paul Otellini (former Intel CEO), and even Bill Gates.
- Testimonies of customers or third parties. Successful product launches typically involve several users who have been pre-tested and can vouch for your product.
- Video clips. Jobs played video clips very often in his presentations. It could be employees who talked about how they like to work on a new product, or television commercials
- View, touch, listen. Give food to audials, visuals, and kinesthetics: say, show, and let something tangible in the rows.
2. Answer the most important question
Start with the feelings of your customers and only then proceed with the technology. For example: “Although it is still a full-fledged Macintosh, we aim it to fulfill the main desire of our users - to go online faster and easier. We also intend it for the education sector: it perfectly matches the wishes of its representatives ... We checked all the products available in this market. We found that they have many common characteristics. The first general characteristic is that they all work insanely slowly, and all use outdated processors. Secondly, they are all equipped with the most miserable monitors ... do not have network devices ... are equipped with outdated I / O devices ... All this means that they have the worst performance and their use creates difficulties and problems. This situation has led us into a terrified horror! So,
Remember that your talk is not about you. People in the audience will ask themselves one question: “How does this affect me personally?” Answer it soon. Here's an example: “The all-new iPod nano gives music lovers the most of what they love about their iPod: doubled memory for the same price, incredible 24-hour battery life and a great aluminum case in five colors.”
3. Create a messianic sense of purpose
Example: "we are here to leave our mark on the universe . " Jobs used this technique when inviting John Scully to work at Apple. Steve said: "You are going to spend my whole life on the sale of sweet water or want to get a chance to change the world?" . Jobs encourages you to do what you like, and this is the secret to his own success. He talks about his products with genuine enthusiasm and this is contagious. “Work takes up most of your life, and the only way you can truly enjoy it is to do what you consider to be great work. And the only way to do an excellent job is to love what you do. If you have not found this, keep looking. Do not stop . "
Destination is an important thing. Millionaire Chris Gardner, who was once just a homeless man spending the night with his two-year-old son on the subway, says: “Find what you love the most and you will push the sunrise to get up and do what you love.”
In this frenzy we see genius
“I think you should stand out from the crowd in order to buy an Apple computer. I think those people who buy them have the most creative spirit in the world. These are not those people who simply perform other people's tasks. They are trying to change the world. We develop tools specifically for such people. We are going to serve the people who bought our products from the very beginning. Often such people are considered insane. But in this frenzy we see genius. And it is for such people that we work. ”
A delightful journey
“Apple was my delightful journey. I mean, we did some amazing things there. What bound us the most about Apple was the ability to do things that could change the world. It was very important. We were all very young. The average age of people in the company slightly exceeded twenty-five years. In the beginning, almost no one had started a family, and we worked like maniacs. The greatest joy was the feeling that we are creating something as grand as, for example, twentieth-century physics, something very important for the world that will live for a long time, something that many people have contributed to and that can help many to other people. “The gain was very large.”
Interestingly, for example, the CEO of Starbucks believes that their mission is not to simply make coffee, but to create a “third place between home and work.”
4. Come up with a tweeter-like headline
Steve Jobs always invented the headlines himself and used them consistently. For example, “Today Apple reinvented the phone” or “MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world.” Jobs spoke and repeated this title several times in his presentation. Then they appeared in advertising materials and the same headlines were used by journalists. And indeed: why trust to come up with a headline for journalists when you yourself can best come up with this headline.
The title lives and reproduces for a long time, so it is important that it be short: no more than 140 characters long. Then any journalist will be able to publish his article with the same title without changes. When the iPod came out , the title was: “1000 songs in your pocket.” The media happily picked up this headline..
Here are a few more examples: “the joy of the Internet, the simplicity of the Macintosh”, “the greenest laptop in the industry”, “the most popular music player in the world - now even better”, “Iphone 3G. Two times faster and two times cheaper ”,“ Keynote. When your presentation is really important to you. ”
5. Draw a roadmap
“Today we are introducing three revolutionary products.” So begins the presentation of Steve Jobs during the presentation of the iPhone in 2007, he said that now he will present not one product, but three: a touch-sensitive iPod, a mobile phone and a completely new Internet communicator. He then announced that these were not three separate devices, but one.
Thus, Jobs drew a road map: a player, a phone, a communicator, and then followed this map when talking about the iPhone, telling first about one, then about another and then about the third.
Verbal milestones create a roadmap and help your listeners follow the story. Thanks to these points, which, by the way, should be three (maximum four), the audience will be able to imagine where you are now. For example, if you announced three points at the beginning of a speech, and spoke of only two points, the audience will demand a story from you about another point.
6. Introduce the antagonist and hero
You may have an “enemy." Those. some kind of opposite to your product or your company or your ideas. It can be either a competing bad product, or a company following other principles.
Here is what Steve Jobs says in 1984: “Will the Blue Giant dominate the entire computer industry? Was George Orwell right? ”
The hero meets with the villain and must definitely defeat him. In Jobs's classic presentation, you can see the antagonist (problem) presentation that rallies the audience around the hero (solution). For example, when Steve introduced the iPhone, at the beginning of the presentation he presented 4 models of existing smartphones on the market that turned out to be not so smart. Having examined their shortcomings, he went on to a solution.
Prepare a short presentation for an “elevator presentation” with your antagonist problem. In thirty seconds you need to answer four questions:
- What are you doing?
- What problem do you solve?
- How are you different?
- How does this relate to your listeners?
As soon as you learn to talk about your product in 30 seconds, they will become much more interested in it.
Apple products arrive on time to save the day and make a difference. This is the message that Jobs brings in his speeches. The hero should have a worthy mission, which is not to destroy the villain, but to improve our lives.
When Jobs introduced the iPod, at the very beginning he talked about the fact that music is part of our lives and that it surrounds us. However, in the world of portable players there is no leader and no good solutions. There are CD players (large), flash players (expensive), HDD players (heavy and expensive). Against this background, he represents the hero: “iPod. 1000 songs in your pocket. ” The solution is simple and free of technical jargon. Jobs presents the benefits of the new product based on user needs.
7. Ease of presentation
In Apple products, Jobs mercilessly removes features and simplifies everything that can be simplified. The same thing happens with the slides that he prepares. There is nothing superfluous on them. Where most speakers squeeze everything they can into the slide, Steve Jobs deletes, deletes, and deletes.
Recently I was in a comprehensive school at a conference on a healthy lifestyle. Schoolchildren prepared reports and presentations about food, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. There I saw an example of a typical speaker with slides. On the slide a bunch of text + bulleted lists + at least one picture. The presenter reads the text directly on the slide. Is that familiar? A lot of modern “speakers” use slides as a legal cheat sheet and read directly on it, not embarrassed by their unpreparedness.
Jobs' presentations are simple, clear, and unlabeled. He completely knows the text of the speech, remembers the sequence of slides and does not look at the screen at all.
On mac presentations prevail: empty space, photos and pictures, simple words.
8. Put on the numbers
Dry numbers and technical data alone will not do any good. If you visualize them, there will definitely be benefits. For example, instead of saying that the first iPod had a 5 gigabyte hard drive, Steve Jobs said: “1000 songs in your pocket.” Or like this: “30 GB of memory is enough to store 7500 songs, 25000 photos or 75 hours of video.”
The more complex the idea, the more important it is to use rhetorical techniques to facilitate understanding.
9. Use “amazingly vibrant words”
In his presentations, Jobs often said something like: “he's amazingly smart” (about iPhone), “we made the icons on the screen so beautiful that you want to lick them.”
The words that Jobs chose for his speeches are simple (free of jargon), specific (very precise and short) and emotional (using descriptive additions). Example: “This is a MacBook Air. You can feel how thin it is. He has a full size keyboard. Is this not surprising? This is how it looks. Great, isn't it? This is the thinnest laptop in the world ”... Speaking of the Titanium PowerBook laptop:“ I asked you to fasten your seat belts. Now I would like you to fasten your seatbelts with racing straps - over your shoulders. "
Clear your text, avoid jargon and buzzwords, add descriptive words. Be confident in your product and pass this confidence on to your listeners without hesitation.
10. Share the scene
Human brains require diversity and no one, no matter how good he may be, can long hold the attention of the audience. Jobs' keynote speeches lasted more than an hour and a half and he managed to keep the audience's attention. How? Through diversity - demonstrations, video clips, and guest speakers. Jobs knows what he does not know and invites, for example, Johnny Ive to talk about a new way to make laptops from a solid aluminum plate.
Jobs invited Apple's key partners and even enemies, while remaining the most “bestowing” of the speakers. In order for the show to sparkle, all its participants must shine.
11. Props
When Johnny Ive and his design team came up with the idea of making the laptop case from a solid metal plate, Jobs, presenting the MacBook, took the details of the case and put them in rows. He gave the opportunity to enjoy kinesthetics.
In general, Jobs devoted the bulk of his keynote speeches to demonstrations. The demonstrations that he did were always interesting, colorful and diluted with jokes. So at the presentation of the iPhone, he made a bully call to Starbucks and jokingly ordered 4000 latte takeaways. This caused laughter in the hall.
Take a short, focused demonstration. If you can bring a person from your team to the demonstration, do it. Imagine something for audiences and for visuals and for kinesthetics.
12. Surprise
Apple products are surprising. At the presentation of the MacBook Air, Jobs pulled a laptop from a mail envelope and at that time the audience gasped. The same thing happened when in 2007 Steve showed off the first iPhone and showed how to scroll the screen with his finger. In 2009, Jobs presented the next Mac and the computer at this performance in a synthetic digital voice spoke about himself. People in the hall jumped up and applauded standing.
Think about how you can surprise the audience and create a moment in your speech that the audience will remember for several years.
13. Learn to perform from the stage
Get ready to speak and don’t read a piece of paper. Dull, monotonous reading on a piece of paper looks awful and lulls the audience. Jobs on stage maintains eye contact, maintains an open pose, and often uses gestures. He controls the pace, volume of speech and pauses. He pronounces some sentences faster, and some slower. Using the usual speed of speech, he noticeably slows it down when it presents the main news or an important idea that listeners should remember.
Watch some of Jobs's speeches and pay attention to the pace, gestures and tone of voice. There is also a good course “Learning to Speak in Public” from Radislav Gandapas. I recommend watching it.
14. Rehearse
Jobs rehearsed for hours. Those. many, many hours. One of the Apple executives said that he once went to a rehearsal and had to wait four hours for Jobs to go down from the stage. Jobs' speeches are the result of many weeks of work, the subtlest "orchestration" and massive collective work behind the scenes. The iDVD team spent several hundred hours preparing for the five-minute demonstration. Jobs rehearsed two full days in the presence of product managers who were in contact with him.
Steve spent a lot of time on slides, developing their design personally. On the last day, one or two full runs of performances were held.
If you want to make a good performance, rehearse. In doing so, record your rehearsals on video and watch these videos in order to correct mistakes.
15. Dress correctly
Jobs wears jeans and a black turtleneck. However, this is not a reason to do exactly the same. Jobs didn’t dress like that right away and when they started Apple at Wozniak, Steve put on a three-piece suit and stood at the exhibition as an exemplary businessman. On the cover of 2008 Macworld magazine, he was wearing a brown jacket, brown tie, and white shirt.
This person knew what impression the clothes make and what impression should be made in this particular case. For example, when he went to the bank, he wore an expensive suit from Brioni.
Consider the impression you want to make on the audience and dress appropriately.
PS: After reading the book, I had a desire to make my own presentations and speeches about a healthy lifestyle in the framework of the project “Common cause”much better. Moreover, I had a clear understanding of how this can be done. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the source and try to put Jobs into practice.
I wish you happiness!