2025-05-29 23:33:27
Have you ever sat through a presentation that just felt disjointed, where the presenter jumped from one idea to the next without warning, leaving you wondering how everything fit together? Even the most interesting insights can be overshadowed by a delivery where the content feels unrelated.
Everybody knows that it’s important to plan out what’s on your slides. What often gets overlooked is how critical it is to plan out what’s between the slides as well. Your transitions are the bridges that connect one idea to the next in a presentation, ensuring the message flows logically and cohesively, making it easier for the audience to follow along and stay engaged, rather than confused and overwhelmed.
In this article, I’ll share some practical ways to polish both your verbal delivery and your slide content to ensure your next presentation is smooth and engaging.
When presenting live, your spoken words play a critical role in shifting between slides. Are you about to dive deeper into the details, zoom out for a broader view, or change topics entirely? Use specific language to let your audience know where you’re headed next, so it’s easy to follow along.
If you’re about to introduce a new concept, it’s important to make the transition feel logical, rather than abrupt. Use words that connect the dots between ideas. Phrases like “let’s shift gears and discuss…” and “now that we’ve covered [X], let’s move on to [Y]…” expressly tell your audience something different is coming.
When expanding on a point or diving into more detailed information, use something like “let’s take a closer look at…” and “to illustrate this point further…” to help guide them from a high-level concept to more granular details.
When it’s time to summarize or offer recommendations, consider language that explains to your audience that you are wrapping up. “To summarize what we’ve covered so far…” and “let’s revisit the main takeaways…” are some ways to do this.
Simply by weaving these verbal phrases into your delivery, you can create a thoughtful flow that feels more like a conversation and less like a lecture.
Transitions aren’t just about what you say—they’re also about what your audience sees. Your visual content and your verbal delivery should be connected in a manner that enhances understanding and engagement.
Here are some easy ways to make your slides visually support transitions between ideas.
Craft clear, active takeaway slide titles that align with your verbal transitions. For example, if you’re shifting topics, ensure the new slide title reflects the change. This reinforces the narrative and helps your audience stay oriented. When scanning through the slide sorter view of your presentation, the titles should serve as a roadmap of your presentation. If you’ve done this well, then with every new slide you put in front of your audience, its title will be a perfect signpost for the idea that is coming next.
Incorporate focusing techniques and visual cues, like sparing color and thoughtful annotations, to support your talking points and signal transitions visually. You can also add subtle animations for emphasis without overwhelming the audience. Not only does this direct attention to where you think it should be paid, but it will help remind you of the points you intended to make, and in what order.
Ensure a consistent design throughout your presentation, keeping fonts, colors, and layouts orderly and intentional. This tactic is less about making sure you’re emphasizing your transition and more about de-emphasizing the things that aren’t meant to change. If each successive slide had new layouts, colors, and fonts, it would be overwhelming for a viewer to deal with. By reining that in and calming down the design, you’ll provide a sense of continuity that supports smoother transitions between slides, because any visible change will now be pertinent to the new topic or level of focus.
Let’s consider an example. Recently, I was working with an online education provider who collected negative feedback from students about various aspects of their digital learning experience across four different courses. Below are two sequenced slides included in the original presentation.
The slide on the left shows the negative feedback by category for all four courses, while the slide on the right presents the student responses broken by both category and the associated course. This switch to a different view was jarring in the original deck, and confusing since there wasn’t consistency in how color was being applied.
To make the shift between these slides easier and more straightforward, we reworked things using the transition tips outlined above. The following verbal and visual transitions were added to guide the audience.
Here, we are looking at the negative feedback categories from recent students' responses. You can see the volume varies across each category.
Transition (focusing attention): There are some aspects that stand out as having more negative feedback.
Specifically, the three largest bars at the top are related to course navigation, the mobile app, and access and login challenges. These account for 65% of the negative feedback we received.
Transition (we’re going to dive deeper): This is an aggregated view of the overall feedback, but when we look at the course level, we start to see some differences. Let me add that information now.
Here, the bars are broken down across the four courses reviewed. The view is a little busy and hard to compare across categories, given the differing amounts of feedback received.
Transition (expanding on a point): Let’s switch views to look at the percent of total across categories to make comparisons easier.
I’ve stretched the bars out to a 100% horizontal stacked bar chart, while keeping the order the same, so the categories on the top represent the largest volume.
Transition (focusing attention): Looking at the top three categories, the percentages are roughly the same for each course.
This tells us that these are global issues we need to address for all courses.
Transition (focusing attention): However, when we consider other categories, this is not true. For example, if you look at instructor support and content quality, two courses stand out.
Most of the negative feedback received for instructor support and content quality came from Course 1 and Course 2.
Transition (offering recommendations): This means that targeted improvements to content and instructor support for these two specific courses should improve student feedback.
Adding slides provided a smoother change between the two aspects of the story. The visual changes, coupled with verbal phrases, connect the information to make what was previously an abrupt change into a more fluid sequence.
Thoughtful transitions are essential for delivering an engaging and professional presentation. When you plan ahead—incorporating both verbal cues and visual elements—you ensure that your ideas flow seamlessly from one point to the next. With practice and preparation, these techniques will not only enhance clarity but also leave a lasting impression of confidence and credibility.
2025-05-13 23:26:00
A: Lunch-and-learns, fellowship groups, book clubs, and cookouts are this type of opportunity to improve your presentation skills.
Q: What are “low-stakes environments”?
Last week, towards the end of an immersive, full day workshop, we were in the middle of a lesson about speaking with confidence. As the third step of our plan-create-deliver roadmap for a stellar presentation, it’s the part of communicating effectively with data that can feel the most daunting, and also the one many folks are least eager to practice.
Getting comfortable delivering any one specific talk, I was telling the group, is easier with some intentional practice.
For instance, it’s helpful to verbalize what you plan to cover while reviewing your full slide deck in thumbnail format.
Then, when you have an idea of your main talking points, focus in by going through one slide at a time to find the flow and key phrases within each one.
Finally, deliver your talk with the laptop fully closed, as you gain more and more familiarity and mastery of your material. (This doesn’t mean memorizing every word you’ll say; just be comfortable that you’ve got a strong knowledge on the order and themes you’ll deliver from start to finish.)
It was at this point that one of our workshop attendees—let’s call him Lee—said, “That’s great for ONE presentation. But how do we get more comfortable with ANY presentation? How do we build our skills, and our confidence, in public speaking more generally?”
“Ah,” I replied. “Like anything else, public speaking gets easier the more we do it. But the idea of public speaking causes so much anxiety for so many people that we tend not to look for chances to do it. That’s why we suggest finding low-stakes environments in which to practice.”
“OK,” said Lee, “but what are these low-stakes environments? It never feels like anything at work is low-stakes.”
And boy, isn’t that the truth? Sometimes it can feel like everything is a fifteen-alarm fire with the future of the entire company hanging in the balance. But the good news is that low-stakes environments for speaking in public are all around us.
Here’s your author preparing to host a trivia night on July 4th (hence the red, white, and blue outfit).
Personally, I am a fan of pub trivia. (Or any trivia, really.) Every year I take the Jeopardy! contestant test, I play in LearnedLeague, and over the past year, I’ve started hosting trivia nights in a few places in and around my hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
It turns out that running a pub trivia game is an excellent example of a low-stakes environment in which to practice public speaking! You have questions and answers provided for you, people are there to play the game so they’re excited, attentive, and upbeat, and all you have to do is hold a microphone and help them have a good time for 90 minutes or so.
Nobody’s going to lose a client or make a million-dollar mistake as a result of your hosting. For me, it’s a perfect low-stakes way to stay sharp, comfortable, and confident in front of a crowd.
Low stakes environments like this are all around us. They most often come from combining a personal interest with a small, supportive crowd. If trivia hosting isn’t your thing, how about these options?
Fellowship groups at your place of worship—you could lead a discussion, offer a reading, or just speak up during a group conversation. These are natural, low-pressure spaces to practice talking about meaningful topics.
Volunteering at libraries, schools, or senior centers—anyone can handle reading to kids, right? You could give that a shot, or help run an event (might we suggest Daphne’s Data Detectives?), or share some of your other experiences. Not only do you get practice, you’ll often be doing so in front of small, grateful groups.
Joining a book club—A built-in audience! You get to speak regularly on a shared topic, with folks who are interested, supportive, and happy to hear your take. This can be fun even if (especially if) everyone flat-out hated the book.
Cookouts or parties—Telling a story to a friend at a backyard BBQ? That counts. Any time you’re speaking to a group—no matter the setting—you’re building comfort. And, it gives you a better window into your own storytelling style. What feels natural? How do you use your voice, your body, or your audience in the telling? These are great things to find out as you develop your professional speaking voice.
Lunch-and-learns at work—Sharing your expertise with coworkers is a great way to get reps in. It’s low-risk and helps you build your voice in a familiar environment, and can bridge the gap from personal-public speaking to professional-public speaking.
Remember, fellow introverts—here are a few things I wish I’d known back when I was anxious and nervous about public speaking:
Ask yourself honestly: is the anxiety coming from the act of speaking, or from fear of the unknown? For most of us, it’s the latter. The more chances you take to speak in front of people, the more normal it’ll feel—and the more in control you’ll be. If you prepare, you’ll feel more confident.
Follow the old coach’s rule: “Practice how you’ll play.” Stand up when you practice if you’ll be standing when you present. Check out the room ahead of time. Give yourself a few minutes to settle in. And try on the clothes you plan to wear—just to make sure they still fit. (Mine seem to keep shrinking...)
Everyone in the room wants you to succeed. They’re already on your side and genuinely want to hear what you have to say. Repay that goodwill by sharing what you know, with the care and clarity it deserves.
Allow me to close with a lyric from a song I first encountered on the psychedelic children’s program “Yo Gabba Gabba,” featuring the artist “I’m From Barcelona:”
Just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it’s scary
Just because it’s different, doesn’t mean you have to be afraid
Just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it’s scary
New things in life can be great
Try new things
So go ahead, Lee (and everyone)—say yes to that lunch-and-learn, offer to lead your book club next time, or test your mic skills at trivia night. The more chances you take to speak in low-stakes settings, the more natural it’ll feel when the stakes are higher. Turns out, confidence isn't something you're born with—it's something you build, one small, unscary step at a time.
2025-04-23 07:46:20
Our current #SWDchallenge has been on my mind. For those who don't know, we pose a different monthly suggestion for community members to build their data visualization and presentation skills. It could be a prompt to try a novel graph type, redesign an existing example, or practice a specific technique like chart animation. This month, data storyteller Simon asked us to consider whether data always needs to be communicated in a graph. Simon shares, "When you have just a number or two, writing the numbers themselves can be much more powerful than burying them in a table or graph and potentially losing the impact of the main number you're looking to share."
This statement came to mind when I reviewed a chart over the weekend. The chart I’m referring to is a bar graph displaying the weekly weight measurements of my dog, Nemo.
Given how sterile this graph appears, you might be surprised to learn that these basic bars elicited a few tears, mostly happy ones. I was so excited about this data that I wanted to share the graph with my friends and family, but I knew the chart wouldn’t have the same impact.
Nemo is a recent addition to our family; we adopted him four months ago. He is a five-year-old mixed breed with a large frame. For reference, he's approximately 25 inches from his shoulders to the base of his tail. By many standards, this classifies him as a large dog. While different breeds vary in weight, you would expect him to weigh at least 50 pounds, based on his frame. As you can see from the bar graph, when Nemo first came home from the shelter, he was 36.2 pounds—severely underweight, with several health issues.
My primary focus over the last few months has been to help him gain weight. I worked closely with his vet to track his weight by bringing him to the office for weekly check-ins. This gave me plenty of data to analyze his progress.
Unfortunately, one of the byproducts of being a data storyteller is that I can’t help but critique charts, whether watching the news or waiting at the vet office. Coming back to the original bar chart, I decided some of the data provided in the pet portal needed a makeover. I removed the border and gridlines. The vertical axis was also deleted, as it was repetitive given the data labels above each bar. Additionally, I made the bars wider so they would be easier to scan across. All of these changes are reflected in the chart below.
This is a simpler graph than the original, but it still doesn’t quite convey the story of Nemo’s recovery. I decided to try a different approach: a line chart.
The line chart has a few advantages over the bar chart. It’s visually lighter with just a single line compared to the nine bars in the original view. This change makes the graph appear more straightforward, even though it contains the same number of data points. Also, there is plenty of extra space around the line, which I filled with annotations. It’s amazing how words can bring data to life!
This got me thinking. If I want to share Nemo’s progress, why do I need a graph? Whether I used bars, lines, annotations, or played with the formatting, the message continued to get lost in the chart. This is a feel-good story about how Nemo, a dog who didn’t have the best start to life, has a second chance. And in a relatively short amount of time, he’s starting to thrive, not just survive.
Taking a cue from Simon’s challenge, I decided to play around with words and images.
This is a view that I know my friends and family will rejoice at! It's strange to think that a simple statement containing a single number and two pictures can provide more insight than an entire data set of detailed measurements. Graphs are powerful tools for communicating information, but they can sometimes overcomplicate things and deprive the reader of emotionally connecting to the data.
Don’t get me wrong, in many cases, a good graph can do wonders to improve a presentation or report. But it’s important to remember that just because you have data, it doesn’t mean you need a graph. Always think about the message and impact you want to have on your audience; choose a visual that will support that. If you want to explore when words might be better than a graph, there is still time to complete this month's challenge in the community: keep it simple (with text).
On a related note, if you enjoy learning via example, get excited for our new book coming this fall: storytelling with data: before and after. We share twenty powerful makeovers—in our traditional before-and-after format—that illustrate practical lessons like how to find the right level of detail, why you shouldn’t tell stories with dashboards, and the core principles that lead to a well-designed slide. Nemo’s makeover didn’t happen in time for the book, but this simple text transformation is one I’m quite proud of!
2025-04-17 04:54:51
"You can write, but you can't edit."
That lyric, from one of my favorite Regina Spektor songs, has been echoing in my mind lately. I’m pretty sure it’s meant as a dig—and honestly, I get it. Editing is hard.
I’m deep in the editing trenches right now, doing the final read-through of our upcoming book, storytelling with data: before & after. This time, I’ve printed the pages out. There’s something different—almost grounding—about reading and correcting by hand. You turn each page. You circle with pen. You stick little notes to flag every tiny change. The process demands focus. It’s tactile. It’s slow. It’s deliberate.
And it’s exhausting.
It takes a ton of energy to go through material you’ve seen so many times with fresh eyes—to keep spotting opportunities for improvement and issues that somehow slipped through earlier rounds. But I fully believe that this painstaking attention to detail, both in the words and the visuals, is what transforms a good product into a great one.
In a way, the process mirrors what we teach. A meta-lesson in before & after is just this: editing is essential. We help our clients look at their graphs, slides, and stories with new eyes. We coach them through iteration, refinement, clarity. It's in the editing that data stories truly come to life.
So while Regina might be right that writing is easier than editing, I’ve learned that embracing the hard parts is what makes the final product shine.
Our new book, storytelling with data: before & after, is coming soon—preorder now if you’d like to be among the first to see the results of all this editing.
2025-04-03 01:00:31
Acronyms are real space savers. Can you imagine having to write out “The United States of America” instead of simply “USA” every time you wanted to refer to it? The labels in our graphs alone would become overwhelming and unwieldy.
In business, though, it seems that acronyms, lingo, and other shorthand creep insidiously into every communication. Invariably, someone in your audience will be unfamiliar with one or more terms that you thought were universally understood.
For instance, check out the performance scorecard below. Without any additional context, imagine how it would feel to be in a meeting and see this slide on the screen.
To the person who created this slide, every title, graph, and annotation makes perfect sense. A subset of the audience will understand it as well, though it may require a bit of effort. The remainder of the audience will likely feel like you do right now: overwhelmed, confused, or even annoyed at being asked to do so much cognitive work.
Without counting, how many different acronyms or abbreviations do you think there are in that scorecard? Ten? Fifteen? More?
The answer is 30. Thirty different acronyms on a single slide! Even accounting for some commonly used ones like USB or YTD, there are still two dozen that remain. Some of those are out-and-out misleading, to boot. The scorecard’s three main columns are entitled PRO, CONS, and REC. Usually, you expect pros and cons to represent opposing sides of an argument, but here, they are just abbreviations for PRObability and CONSequence.
If you’re using an acronym in a communication, spell it out the first time it appears—even if you’re pretty sure everyone in the room knows what it means.
There’s no guarantee that this graph, slide, or presentation won’t end up in front of a different audience later—or that a new employee in the room will be familiar with all the acronyms and lingo. The worst case scenario of being overly clear in text is that everyone will know what you’re talking about.
On the other hand, if you are referring to the same program across multiple slides, you can use the acronym after the first mention. Ultimately, it depends on whether saving space is worth it, especially if future slide or graph titles are longer.
At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to impress with insider language—it’s to make sure your message lands. When we default to clear, accessible terms, we reduce the cognitive load and make it easier for everyone to engage with the content. That’s not just a kindness; it’s a strategic move. So whether you’re building a scorecard, writing a chart title, or drafting a report, pause and ask yourself: Will this be clear to someone seeing it for the first time? If the answer’s no, take the extra moment to spell it out. Your future self—and your future readers—will thank you.
If you found this helpful, there’s more where that came from. Our upcoming book, storytelling with data: before and after – practical makeovers for powerful data stories, is packed with real-world examples, step-by-step redesigns, and smart strategies just like this. It’s available now for preorder and will be published this fall—we can’t wait to share it with you!
2025-03-20 19:44:03
When I'm about to lead an in-person workshop, I usually like to get there early and scope out the room. I go through my usual routine: picturing myself talking to everyone, figuring out where I can move without blocking the screen, making sure the clicker works – mentally ticking off these items allows me to feel confident for the upcoming session.
But recently, at a client workshop (you can find out more about our team trainings at https://www.storytellingwithdata.com/team-trainings), the situation was a bit different. Instead of the usual layout with tables or theater seating, it was just a regular boardroom with a big table and a screen at one end. There were a handful of participants joining virtually and the organizers had me sit at the end of the table due to the proximity of the Laptop connector.
Right away, I knew my usual "stand up front" approach wouldn't work. The room felt too small and casual for a four-hour standing presentation, and I'd definitely block the screen for the online attendees. With these factors in mind, I chose to conduct the workshop sitting down.
After an engaging session with an enthusiastic group, I started thinking about the differences between sitting and standing while presenting. Here are three tips I can offer for making a sit-down presentation engaging and successful.
1. Keep the conversation going
We always aim for our workshops to be interactive. In a traditional lecture-room style setup, however, participants might hesitate to share their thoughts or ask questions. But sitting down made it feel more like a natural conversation. The relaxed atmosphere, however, did lead to more interruptions with attendees feeling free to jump in and it took extra effort to keep the agenda on track.
I found myself changing what I had planned to fit the flow of the discussion. Since the real value of a workshop is often the conversation between attendees, it's better to be flexible with the content rather than stick to a rigid agenda. When it comes to delivering an engaging experience for your audience ensure you know your content well enough to be able to seamlessly flex it depending on the situation.
2. Use your words to direct people’s attention
When you're standing, it's easy to point to the slides and make that connection clear. But sitting down meant I had to be more thoughtful about my slides.
For any presentation, whether it's in person or online, keep your slides simple and focused. They should support what you're saying, not just show every detail. With less on the slides, people can scan them easily while listening to you. I was able to indicate verbally to my audience when to look at the slides. In addition, I added pauses, giving my audience time to assess the content before returning their focus to me.
3. Bring energy with your voice, expressions, and posture
Moving with purpose and using gestures are effective ways to help keep people engaged during a presentation. But when you're sitting, you've got to find other ways to do that. To keep my energy levels high, I made sure to stand up during breaks and when people were working independently. I also paid attention to my posture to avoid looking slumped, which can also affect your voice and energy.
Even when you're sitting, your body language still matters. Leaning in to emphasize a point, using your hands (even if it's just a bit), and making eye contact can make a big difference in helping to generate a rapport with your audience.
Looking back, I truly enjoyed the conversational feel of that workshop. It kept me on my toes, and I'd be happy to do it again. Next time, I’d consider standing at appropriate points in the session. Delivering the introductions, more theoretical aspects and presentation examples would all be good opportunities to stand and mix the delivery style up.
It was a good reminder that even with our best-laid plans, things don't always go as expected. It's important to be ready to adapt and to know your content well enough to present it effectively in any situation. That's what makes a presentation truly successful.