TC 4 (team) -- Proposal presentation

To:	All Educational Toy Division engineers
From:	Nikola Tesla, Vice President for Innovation
Subject:	Team educational toy project proposals
Date:	16 February 2015

Background

As you know, our company is interested in developing new educational toys. Each engineer has already written a preliminary proposal for a new toy. Next, you will consult with your project manager and team members to decide on the particular product your team will propose. Each team will then present a formal proposal to management on 12 March 2015 or 13 March 2015. The purpose of this memo is to lay out the guidelines for this presentation.

Deliverable

You have been asked to propose a product and build a prototype of that product. The purpose of your proposal is to describe and justify your product idea, and to lay out how you plan to build your prototype. Refer to the memo of 28 January 2015 for details.

Your proposal will be in the form of an presentation with projected slides in front of your colleagues and a team of evaluators. You must speak without written notes. Your team will have 12 minutes for your presentation, plus three minutes for questions and suggestions. Every team member should do a roughly equal part of the presentation. See below for guidelines for the presentation.

There will also be one required rehearsal for each team in the days preceding the presentation. We will start scheduling these soon. Each team should be prepared to deliver a preliminary version of their presentation at that time, and we will provide feedback and suggestions to make the actual presentation as successful as possible.

Your team should bring a laptop with VGA output to show your presentation, both to the rehearsal and to the actual presentation. Let us know if this poses a problem for your team. Your team should also bring a paper copy of your slides for the evaluators (three-per-page format is OK).

You can use the structure below as a starting point for structuring your presentation. We will be giving you more information on the format of the presentation and on how to deliver presentations.

• Overview (2-3 slides)
  • Little Toy Blue's objectives/needs
  • Proposed device
  • Agenda for today's presentation
• Project description (approximately 7-10 slides)
  • Background (statement of need or opportunity)
  • High-level functionality (and justification)
  • Proposed prototype
• Work plan (1-2 slides)
• Summary slide

Feel free to contact Dr. Hildinger with questions.

How to submit your work

Presentation evaluation notes

We will be looking at content, structure, presentation and visuals. Here are some issues we will be concerned with--use this list as a guide as you develop your presentation.

Technical content and argumentation

• All the sections asked for are present, clear and of high quality (background, function, prototype, work plan)
• Clear explanations and arguments, plausible claims, good supporting evidence
• Balanced amount of information (not too much or too little on any given topic)
• Credible answers to questions from the audience; receptive to audience concerns

Design and organization of the presentation

• Effectively introduced (overview) and concluded (main points reinforced)
• Background of project and purpose of presentation are clear
• Technical discussion is clearly arranged, focused on the purpose of the presentation

Design and use of visuals

• Visuals are well designed, legible, consistent and appropriate for the purpose (see "slide design")
• Slides cover all important points
• Visuals are used effectively, with a good balance between talk and visual information

Delivery (preparation and presentation)

• Speakers prepared, able to speak without notes in an orderly and clear manner
• Presentation is within time constraints
• Effective personal contact is established with audience (audibility, good eye contact and rapport)
• Good screen work (point specifically, stand by screen, don't block audience's view)
• Introductions, handoffs and summaries handled well
• Everyone contributes, everyone is involved and attentive

Slide design: some goals

Key slides

• Title slide (with title, team name, team member names, occasion, date)
• Overview slide (lays out problem statement/motivation for project and proposed solution)
• Agenda slide (lays out structure of talk or main content areas)
• Summary slide (reminds audience of main claims/"takeaway")

Other guidelines

• Useful slide titles (think of these as being like section headings--they help speakers navigate through the presentation)
• Non-distracting backgrounds and colors
• Not too much text (no long prose passages); not too little text (cryptic, one-word bullet points)
• Amount of info appropriate for 30-60 seconds per slide (so roughly 3 to 6 slides per speaker--but this will vary a lot)
• Text must contrast enough and be big enough to be legible (at least 18-20 points, if not bigger)
• Text must be in grammatically parallel structures
• Absolute consistency of style and format--make your team look like a team

REHEARSE: This will take longer than you think. You need to be very concise.

TALK LOUDLY: Louder than you think--you may think you're speaking loudly, but you're probably not.