Fast. Easy. Beautiful.
The audience did not understand a point that you thought was clearly explained
The audience perfectly understood what you said, but did not buy it
Different problems, different homework cut out for you
Photo by Chris Moore on Unsplash
Not all feedback on an investor pitch is useful, for different reasons:
The audience might not know the substance
The investor who turns you down does not want to be (painfully) honest
The feedback giver did not actually spend any time reading your deck
Your mother loves you, whatever you say or do
Here are some deck suggestions that you should treat with suspicion:
Include the $5b [fill in Gartner IT market segment] to your market estimate…
…and make that billion number stand out in bold, italic, underline. Hit them with it!
Change the order of pages 5, 7, and 8
Keep the deck to 8 pages max
Combine slide 23 and 24
Have a look at that AirBnB pitch of 2010, and follow that structure, it worked very well
Add 2 years to the business plan projection
You need a vision page
Some fancy animation will put some “wow” into this page
Show how your technology can be used in crypto as well, that is hot
“I am so proud of you my son, I always knew you will do well”
This can come from highly experienced entrepreneurs or investors as well (who might be expert in another field, do not want to hurt you, had not time reading your deck).
Photo by Anton Darius | @theSollers on Unsplash
Wishing everyone a fantastic 2019! As the entire world except Tel Aviv winds down for the holidays. I will use the lull in blog traffic to churn out some more lines of code, hopefully you will get to experience the result in the new year.
Photo by Brigitta Schneiter on Unsplash
My development work initially focused on Windows computers, while Mac users are likely to be the ones that are early adopters of new technology (big corporates with big IT departments usually run Windows and are less flexible to try something new), the market eventually will be Windows users.
I stumbled on a new software development platform that probably allows me to write one code base and use it to deploy software on Windows, Mac, and yes even Linux at the press of a button. This will cause some delay to the development, but can still work at the stage where I am at. I need to see whether this solution grants me the deep access to the operating system I need.
To be continued.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
I have been trying electronic pencils for years and years: different 3rd party iPad styli (is that the correct plural?), the previous Apple pencil itself and previous solutions by Wacom. None of these worked good enough for me to get rid of my note book.
I think has changed with the latest Apple pencil that works on a 2018 iPad Pro. The updated pencil solved a few annoyances when compared to the previous one:
It snaps to your device (but still falls of in your bag)
When snapped, it charges, no more need to stick it in the iPad connected
It no longer rolls
It has a matt finish and feels nicer to work with
The biggest issue though used to be work flow, with 2 poor options:
Log into your sleeping iPad all the time when you want to jot something though in a meeting
Keep your notes app running all the time and thereby letting the graphics intensive app drain your iPad battery.
That has been solved by a feature buried in the settings of the Apple Notes app: a simple double tap of the pencil on the screen wakes up the Notes app. The iPad is still locked as a security precaution, you can set the time it takes for the iPad to open a new note instead of displaying the last note you were writing to anyone who taps the screen.
Microsoft is on a roll, and now that I am turning temporarily into a developer, I appreciate them even more with very powerful code editors, and repeated decisions to open source their software (the entire Windows platform engine is going open source), and make other sensible decisions (moving to the Chromium browser rendering engine inside Edge).
The office apps are no exception, and I took some time to play around with PowerPoint on my new iPad.
The app looks and feels fantastic (I have something to aspire to), and all the basic design features work flawlessly. I find it easier to find my way around coming in “cold” then the keynote app for iPad. The small screen encourages you to design simpler slides, and spend less time adding stuff that is not essential to your story.
In 2018, things are still not perfect though. But most shortcomings are to blame on the iPad form factor, not Microsoft:
Presentation design is a creative process that needs space, a big screen, accurate placing of objects (fingers are less good here than a mouse). An iPad is just not a focussed design interface.
File management is still cumbersome on an iPad. Finding that deck from last week, opening a spreadsheet side by side, copying an image from the web browser, things that take a second on a computer are not intuitive on an iPad.
Because of the form factor Microsoft has cut down the features for PowerPoint on iPad. In itself, this is great (I am also focusing the features in my app), but, once the genie is out of the bottle, it is very hard to have the same application on different platforms with different feature sets, especially if you are working with collaborators on different devices. “Please create this bar chart”, is emailed to the analyst working on an iPad in the taxi who then discovers that data charts are not really supported. It also hard to create custom themes and colour schemes.
So my verdict is basically the same as in previous review: a beautiful application that is an extension of the computer version: best used for delivering presentations to small audiences, and make emergency slide edits.
Now that iPads become very powerful the logical thing to do for Microsoft, to switch to a full blown 1-in-1 copy of the desktop application as soon as it recognises that the user has hooked up a bluetooth keyboard and (let’s see if this will ever happen), a bluetooth mouse to the device.
Some users of the PowerPoint template store notice that the pace of new addition has slowed down as I am focusing on coding my own slide design application. If you have any specific requests feel free to forward them to me via jan at slidemagic dot com. It needs to be a very specific request (sorry, can’t do a bespoke design in this business model), or alternatively, send an existing chart with your content inside that I can use as inspiration for a template on the store (obviously I will remove the specifics).
Photo by Daniel Bradley on Unsplash
I upgraded my 9.7” iPad to the new 12.9” version after trying one out. Here are my observations:
The size and weight of the bigger iPad is now manageable (unlike the first models). It is so light that the programmed weight to size ratio in your head gets confused. Still, this remains a “2 hand” device in most cases. If you need a 1-hand device, this one is not for you.
The size is the main reason I got it, it enables me to read “magazines” by smaller publishers do not have the resources to invest in proper iPad apps and simply send out a PDF every month. For this purpose it is great. An A4-sized PDF on iPad is now one on one comparable to a paper one, probably even better.
The best way to get a feel for the screen quality is to go back to your old device that you thought was great. It is not yet as stark as the iPhone 3 to iPhone 4 jump, but it is a huge step up.
The thing is incredibly fast and snappy
The pencil is a huge improvement. I tried working with styli and pencils right from the launch of the first iPad, none of them really worked for me. This one snaps against the iPad with magnets (although it will fall of in your bag), has a matt feel, cannot roll away due to a flat side, has a tap function to quickly change pens, and charges on the side of the device rather than sticking out of the connector. Writing and drawing is awesome. The killer question will be how it behaves in an hour meeting: unlocking the device, battery life, both of which were wrong in the previous version. Constantly messing around with buttons and passwords to jot down something, and then leaving your meeting with a drained battery. Face ID should help (hopefully).
I did not get the keyboard, I still believe that writing long texts can be better done on a proper laptop.
The iPad is expensive, but you can save on storage if you restrict your movie downloads to those you need on one long haul flight.
Applications with a dark background are fashionable now. I can still remember back at the end of the 1980s, when screens went the other way: light backgrounds with dark letters, even on green and amber monitors.
Research (lots of it done in the 1980s), suggests that light backgrounds are better. Light tightens the iris, and and a smaller iris can focus better. (Think squinting and pinhole cameras).
As I am coding away on my app, I need to think about this.
Again, not all user interfaces are the same. Dark mode can be useful when reading Twitter feeds late at night in bed with others sleeping, but this is not the context of presentation design.
We need to separate presenting and designing. Presenting on a big screen is better with a dark background, since the speaker does not get overpowered by this big wall of light. (Dark backgrounds will encourage people to dim the lights in the conference room though, encouraging sleep). In some industries, people sill print decks (banking), and a white background saves a lot of ink cartridges.
When it comes to user interfaces, I am again on the fence. Coding on a dark background is more convenient because it is easer to see subtle differences in text color (functions, variables, etc.).
Apps need to be more or less consistent. Switching back and forth between light and dark is tiring. If the everyone goes dark, I probably have to follow. (This was probably one of the main reasons for people to switch in the 1980s, switching back and forth from the screen to paper)
There is an opportunity to make a starker contrast between the design canvas and the software UI, making one light, the other dark
In 2018, dark applications give the impression of being “cool” and modern, which is what a new startup needs…
In short, it is complicated.
Photo by Dmitri Popov on Unsplash
Overheard from a VC friend: an entrepreneur who was pitching suggesting that his colleague would for sure understand the opportunity, since he has an undergraduate degree in the subject at hand, A few mistakes:
You lost a few niceness points there
Your score for judgement as a salesman in sales pitches just was lowered
Yes, 4 years of undergraduate education in a certain subject has value, but so has 30 years of professional and investing experience.
Even if you think the VC you are pitching does not understand the subject at hand (and you could be totally right of course), hold the feedback for yourself. Instead, make it your problem to convince him.
Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash
For a number of reasons, keyboards do not follow an alphabetical layout, including increasing typing speed by promoting the use of alternating hands, and/or preventing jams of hammers in mechanical type writers.
I feel that many of today’s presentation (and all other productivity) software is still in the ABC phase. Functions are grouped logically so you can more easily find them the first time around. Instead, they should be grouped in the way you actually use them:
How often are they required?
What features are typically used together?
The resulting user interface might not be logical, but will be very useful. Work in progress.
Seth Godin designed this framework to explain what Linchpin Jobs are:
I did a quick makeover of the diagram, keeping the design super simple (life is too short to be spending designing charts at your desk):
Move from an XY to a 2x2 layout to make it easer to read the axis
Changing the labels of the boxes, axes to get rid of excess text, make them more consistent
Change the colours so that the cog jobs stand out (I think they are worse than what I call “lazy specialist” roles
Cover image credit: Jared Goralnick
By coincidence I watched part of the live coverage of a political debate in the Dutch parliament yesterday (after reading a newspaper that provided a link). Here are some of the things I noticed:
Most of them are debating to each other, technocrats, rather than the general public and looking to score quick points on technical details. The audience for the live debate is probably pretty small, but news outlets tend to pick sound bites in their coverage later on.
All of the politicians want to have the last word: they quickly make an additional point, leaving no time to let the answer sink in, and move on to a completely different subject not to give the opportunity for additional intervention
The whole format of an open political debate about a very complex treaty without a clear agenda does not really work, people jump back and forth between totally different topics: fundamentals, practicality, interpretations of words, etc. etc.
Politicians like to stick to their hobby horses. Finally, someone makes a point that could be considered reasonable by the opposing party, open the way for a compromise or agreement, and boom, it is followed by the usual dogmas that will block any further changes of mind.
Maybe a good slide deck that breaks down the discussion in 2-3 tangible options what can be done next, with clearly grouped pros and cons can help structure this debate a bit :-).
Photo by Giovanni Gras on Unsplash
I met someone at Amazon the other day, explaining how they deal with communication (spoiler: no PowerPoint):
For a decision, you have to write a memo (2 pages max), no slides / PowerPoint
The memo gets handed out in the meeting (no pre-reading), and people have 30 minutes to read it in silence
Then, the discussion follows, going straight to Q&A, no presenting
There are obviously some good things about this approach:
No time wasted on designing 100+ page PowerPoint decks
No time wasted in sitting through presentations where people are reading slides from the screen
Less risk that people will jump in the conversation without having done their homework
No pre-reading late at night after the kids are asleep
But…
Writing a good memo might be more time consuming/difficult then creating a quick presentation
Some information on which you want to base a decision is better presented visually than in paragraphs (pros/cons, graphs with trends, tables with financial data)
Sometimes, you actually need some time to ponder things over before making a big decision.
On balance, it is probably the right thing to do because it creates a strong cultural statement.
(BTW, I am going to experiment with uploading the cover images in colour, a nice change for 2019, what do you think?)
Photo by Luca Micheli on Unsplash
I was looking back at my old site on the Wayback Machine the other day and noticed how my approach to presentation design has changed. Back then, I would put huge efforts in finding unusual images, study advertising design, push PowerPoint to its limits. The result: some pretty unusual presentations.
Today, I have become much more pragmatic: presentations should be easy to understand (which might mean cutting that exotic visual metaphor), have a pro/no-nonsense look, and very easy/quick to put together, there are more important things to do than battling presentation design software.
Have I become lazy? I don’t think so. Just a more realistic and practical approach to presentation design.
This post on AVC describes a common situation: technical problems when setting up a presentation. Different computers and different screens (dimensions, operating systems, resolutions, cables, plugs) make it unpredictable what happens when you connect the 2.
This a particular problem in marathon meetings, where a large number of presenters show up one after the other. It is a time waste for the audience and a concentration breaker for the presenter.
The solution in the post was an interesting one: use Zoom (or another web conferencing service) locally (i.e., standing in the same room). This eliminates the need for hardware connections and allows presenters to line up, solve any technical issues before they are due on stage.
In the absence of such a solution, my recommendation would be to always carry a USB stick with your deck around (in PowerPoint and PDF), just in case. Ultimately portable projectors will be compact and capable enough that everyone who has a high-stakes presentation to pitch will carry one around.
Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash
My first software product that I coded myself seems to be working and I need a handful of beta testers to work with. I want to see if there are unexpected bugs still hiding in the product, and what happens if people start installing things on a machine other than my own (full of developer privileges when it comes to accessing hard disks, etc.)
What is this product? A plug in for PowerPoint that converts SlideMagic presentations to 100% perfect PowerPoint. Extra bonus: automatic translation to and from a dark background, and flipping between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio in a second without distortions. Users get sent a “.MAGIC” file that the tool can interpret.
It runs on Windows only, since I had to dive pretty deep into the Microsoft .NET libraries to get all this to work. (At the moment, I deal with Mac-originated conversion requests partly manually, you get the same quality conversion sent to you with a time zone delay, but this will not be sustainable if request volume goes up).
This product is not the final stage of SlideMagic, more a first step for me to test whether I can ship useful software. I am catching up with technology since my 1992 graduation from engineering school, now I have moved on from PowerPoint plugins to writing Windows desktop applications from scratch for a next product release. Desktop apps are a bit “1995”, but for B2B design work, “cloud” might not always be the best solution. In any way, I have to pass this station before being able to move on to web and possibly mobile app technologies. It is fascinating to see that you can basically do anything in software if you are not intimidated by technology and have the courage to leave the traditional boxes/application models and user interface approaches.
If you area a Windows user and are interested in helping out, send me an email to jan at slidemagic dot com.
Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash
Computers and software have become powerful enough that it is now possible to have them sing a song on a melody and lyrics you write. (Vocaloid by Yamaha). The quality is not yet that of a diva, but the result is acceptable enough for trying out songwriting ideas.
This “text to speech” technology could be interesting for presentation design as well. If a computer voice can read out your pitch with a convincing intonation, you could test out your ideas without having to contract a voice actor (which you would never do for an everyday business presentation).
When you glance over a sentence in a document for the 100th time, you are not really reading it anymore, you just check the latest edit you made. Hearing the whole thing out loud, can wake you up to the fact that it has become bloated, fluffy, loaded with jargon, buzzwords, and boring.
Photo by Maaria Lohiya on Unsplash
In the coming days, I will switch SlideMagic PowerPoint conversions to the new software that I have written: no more imperfect renderings but a perfect 1-to-1 translation. The conversion still involves processing centrally, but ultimately, I will release a DIY plugin for Windows users, I am still stress testing it.
In the future, this feature might become the premium offering of SlideMagic, the ability to save “.magic” files to your computer, translate them to PowerPoint freely to collaborate with your colleagues, and present decks offline.
When people submit their SlideMagic documents for conversion to PowerPoint, I still have to peek inside for a second for a quick manual operation. Here is the most common design mistake I see: different font sizes in boxes that are part of the same list or grouping.*
Yes, bigger fonts are better, but in case of lists, it is the lowest common denominator that determines their size. Slide design is like formatting headlines in a print newspaper: you need to edit text to make the message clear, but also to fit things in the typographical constraints.
* Users in te app are warned beforehand about this.
Cover image by Andre Benz on Unsplash
