One of the more coveted roles in the Industry is that of Product Management. Being from the Banking & Financial Services background, I can vouch for the same being true for this Sector as well. Product Managers are supposed to be the ‘brains, eyes and ears’ of the Product they are managing.
Right from conceptualizing the Product/ Offering to defining the Financial Plan/ Business Projections, tying up the Marketing Mix (this is more pronounced in the Consumer side of business than in the Commercial side), obtaining all internal (and external) approvals to preparing the Launch Plan and getting the required budget approvals as needed, the Product Manager is the pivot around which the Product/ Offering revolves. A Product Manager’s role extends to carrying out ‘Post Implementation Reviews’ as well where he/ she attempts to do a post – facto review of the Product/ Offering launched along with key Financials and other metrics to determine success or otherwise, after a reasonable period has elapsed from the launch date. Recommendations for refining/ fine tuning the Product/ Solution are also included in this.
While there are various aspects of a Product Manager’s life, one of the key aspects a Product Manager has to master in order to be successful is Presentation Skills. I would say these are one of the key elements of the ‘Product Management Toolkit’ every Product Manager needs for becoming successful. Presentations are needed to communicate an idea to Senior Management, to prepare Client pitches (more pronounced on the Commercial side of Banking where tailor – made solutions & differentiation hold the key), to submit Business Review decks and much more. While there are multiple books/ videos available on the do’s and don’ts of presentations, making effective presentations is an art which requires persistence, practice and adherence to some rules. Here, I am making an attempt at capturing some aspects that shall hold true for making impactful presentations in general. These could, however, be skewed slightly towards Financial Services, which has been the mainstay of my career:
1. Keeping the audience in mind: The flow, creativity, content and messaging to be used in the presentation shall be a function of the audience the presentation is meant for. Typically for Senior Management reviews, the decks should talk more about Financial Performance in terms of key metrics, relative performance vis – a – vis earlier periods, Performance v/s Plan, etc. On the other hand, in case of client pitches, the presentation should cover the client pain points sought to be addressed by the Product/ Solution, USPs of the offering, key clients availing similar solution/ Client Testimonials, Impact of the Client decision to opt for the Solution in terms of Cost Saves, Operational efficiency, etc. In case of Client pitches, the presentation should convey an understanding of client needs in order to help open client doors for business. The level of skill and creativity used shall also increase progressively with the Seniority of the audience. An awareness of the expectation of the audience helps here – for instance, in Senior Management reviews, flamboyance might turn out to be counter – productive.
2. Knowing the duration of the presentation/ number of slides to be prepared: The duration of the presentation is another key element that shall play a role in its preparation. Depending on this detail, one needs to decide which areas need to be covered in a comprehensive manner and which ones, only tangentially.
3. Defining the flow of the presentation: It is important to ensure that the presentation flows smoothly like an astute painter’s brush on canvas….the slides should covey the message clearly and in the right order – transitioning from one part of the presentation to the other should be seamless and the presentation should appear to be a story with a cogent beginning, strong storyline and a logical ending. In case of client pitches, visuals become important and should be used skillfully to engage the audience.
4. Attention to detail: While it is a given that one would be extra careful with the details given what’s at stake (Business opportunity/ Perception of the team/ Opportunity to get additional investment, etc), this is a critical aspect of any presentation that can mar its impact in case of any factual inaccuracy, color – combination issue (leading to the audience not viewing any slide properly), grammatical error, etc. One needs to have a ‘four eye’ approach where at least two people go through the finer details in order to avoid any glitches on the ‘D – day’.
5. Usage of powerpoint tools: While there are multiple powerpoint tools that can add glitter to a presentation, their usage should be made with discretion. For example, Customer Animation might work wonders at a B – school Case Study, but may not be appreciated at Business Reviews in a Corporate setting. This could, however, change in case one is in another Industry such as Media/ Advertising, where the presentations are expected to be highly creative and snazzy. Similarly, Smart Art can be a great tool to convey the message using few words, but one needs to be cognizant of its applicability in the given setting.
6. Usage of graphs: Usage of graphs is crucial to conveying the message especially in Reviews where Financial Performance is under discussion. The choice of the graph should be such that the message comes out clearly; in case of relative performance being shown, the time period selected should be optimal i.e. neither too short to give an inadequate representation nor too long to make the graph look stretched. There could be a challenge in case there is a declining trend and one wishes to camouflage things…but that can’t be covered in this section 😊
Will cover some more aspects on Presentation Skills in Part 2 of this Series….keep watching this space for more!
Product Management Toolkit 