#44: 3 Big Words: Voices Worth Hearing
If time is the price, then then the "business of making it worth it" is the product.
Presenting is a tough skill to master. Especially for a lot of introverted people. It can get incredibly anxiety-inducing for just about anyone.
For designers, especially for those of us who are in the technology business, learning how to present well is critical to just about everything we do. A huge part of what will make us & our work successful is storytelling, which involves a lot of things: persuasion, empathy, writing, narrative design and so on.
Being able to get in front of an audience, from your stakeholders to your customers, and do this as tastefully as possible is a real competitive advantage. As with many other superpowers, there is no substitute to doing, to trial-by-fire, to just putting yourself out there, mistakes and all, and get better through the process.
A few things I’ve learned over the years that is helping me with this:
Construct a decent narrative supported by data
Opinions are good, data-backed insights are better. It’s really the marriage of personal anecdotes and quantitative data that makes for a really compelling storytelling. It works for business, it certainly works for a lot of product-driven conversations. For my first ever talk at a UX Conference, I created a customer journey map of my own career applying exactly this lesson.
Related post: Mapping the journey of a design career on Medium
Take out what is NOT needed
Generally, it is safe to assume that people’s attention span is limited. No matter who your audience is, you do not want to waste their time. I know this sounds more like common sense but it’s always good to be reminded that it’s a privilege to be heard, to speak. In a hyper-connected world where almost everyone has a multitude of choices everyday, this is a useful heuristic I use to test out ideas and people worth listening to:
As a consumer / listener / viewer / reader….
What can you tell me that I haven’t heard before?
Is there anything that I can takeaway from this that I can’t possibly get elsewhere?
How different is your idea and your mental model of the world compared to the next person in the similar field / path?
How unbiased and truthful is the content you are about to put out?
If I were to invest a few couple minutes of my time listening to you, what will I get out of it? and how is that more valuable than <insert a million other things one could be doing instead>?
Let go of the cliché statements and use your own voice
It’s so incredibly easy to fall into the fallacy of ‘expert’ lingo. I am no stranger to this. There is nothing wrong with using industry jargons and technical languages. At the end of the day, it’s really up to how well you know your audience and adjust accordingly. To me, though, it is a critical skill to communicate complicated concepts in the simplest of manner. I find that it really begins with learning how to think in first principles perspective.
If you know what you’re talking about, it will show. You don’t need to memorize a bunch of playbooks on the subject. You seek the truth about your subject and use that as a guide. Part of being effective as a communicator (written / oral) is being extremely good at weeding out the bullshit. Even if it means exposing ourselves to the hard truths about our knowledge gaps we rarely want to admit.
Related post: #32: The Anatomy of a Curiosity
Study other fields and industries
This is a no-brainer. It’s a hack, a technique, a framework I learned outside of school, for sure but has helped me improve a lot of aspects of my life. Specifically with speaking and writing, casting a wider net on my influences is a spectacular strategy. Considering how my brain works, I think having breadth rather than depth is working a lot to my advantage.
Some benefits that I can think of:
Stimulates and improves pattern-finding
Makes for an interesting and unique storytelling
Opens up scenarios I would not have thought of otherwise
Makes higher-level thinking easier
Makes it possible to establish relationships and connectors for subjects that are completely unrelated
Helps harness lessons, insights EVERYWHERE, not just on specific topics
Excellent book on this subject: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
Know your audience
Of all the principles I’ve mentioned, this is probably the one that needs no further input. Part of speaking in front of people is also uncovering their mental models as accurately as possible. It doesn’t have to be too intricate. In fact, it could be as simple as knowing what they care most about. Much like building user experiences, talking to people requires empathy.
What is their level of literacy with the subject? What do they know? What don’t they know yet? Which angle of your story would garner the highest probability of receiving their complete and undivided attention? Afterall, the last question is the goal right?
We, as speakers, writers, content creators, are here for this. We live for this. This is how we bring value to the world. It’s not about us. It is about the people we choose to serve. They’re choosing to give us a piece of their time, which is a finite resource.
The least we can do is to make it worth their while.
And, I can tell you right now, this is not the easiest of goals, which is probably the reason why, in an overly saturated market (“the internet”), only the rare gems stand out. We are swimming— drowning, even—in content.
The tricky part is to find the ones worth investing in. It’s harder than it used to be but it’s a challenge I embrace so faithfully with every post and talk I give.
I want to make every word, voice and interaction with you worth your time. God knows we don’t have enough of it.
Thank you for reading,
Nikki Espartinez
Apps that are worth your time
If you want to meet likeminded people, generally for the driven and self-aware types:
I am a user of both applications and would happily recommend them to just about anyone who is looking to connect with people worth talking to. This is not a sponsored post. I just love the existence of these products / companies genuinely & organically. Thank you to the founders of these companies.
A few of my other favorite things at the moment
How to Decide, a book by Annie Duke — still reading
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist, a book by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson — still reading
Thank you for reading Working Title. I am here because of you. I’d love to hear more about what you think. Please send me a note if you have any feedback at all: nikkiespartinez@gmail.com