For a lot of us, a major part of our job is presenting work you’ve done (or milestones of that work) to stakeholders for buy-in or sign-off. Even though these presentations might not always be super formal, they’re important, and it’s worth spending a bit more time to make sure they hit.

A way I find helps me structure my presentations most effectively is to remember that just because this project has been almost all I’ve thought about for the last week, month, however long – the stakeholders in my audience are probably not thinking about it.

Forgetting this is usually when you start to get frustrated at your stakeholders:

• Why don’t they remember this? We decided this ages ago!

• Why are they getting distracted by unimportant details?

• Why are they not happy with the solution we arrived at? This is what they asked for!

If this sounds familiar, try out this structure for your next internal presentation:

1. Recap everything.

Start off by repeating yourself to make sure everyone is on the same page. Some things you might want to repeat at the start:

• The key problem you’re solving,

• Why we landed on this direction or solution,

• What we’re hoping to get out of it,

• Timelines

The specifics will depend on what you’re presenting and your audience, but you can use this as a jumping-off point. The point of this is to make sure everyone remembers the key goals and decisions made before you jump into the solution – it will help to ground them in the reality you’d already agreed upon.

2. Point out any important changes since last time.

Think about the last time you presented to these stakeholders. Since that last meeting, have you made any big decisions, discoveries, or pivots? Have timelines changed? Should your stakeholders expect anything to impact them?

3. Tell the audience what you want out of today.

Even if you think everyone knows this, say it out loud anyway. What are you hoping to get out of your audience today – approval, feedback, or something else? Do you need any decisions from them based on today?

4. Finally, go into your solution.

Now that everyone’s on the same page about what we’re doing, how we got here, and what we want out of today, you can move into presenting your work.

While this structure isn’t foolproof, it does guide the audience into what you’re hoping to get out of the presentation more than just jumping in, and can surface points of confusion earlier.

The most important takeaway from today is to practice having empathy for your stakeholders. If you spend some time thinking about what they know, how distracted they are, and what they’re concerned about, you can address them much more effectively.

If you’re still having stakeholder drama, it might be a good time to make a stakeholder map to evaluate your engagement strategy. Catch you next week! ✨