Reviewing Steve Jobs’ Presentations
Over the last couple of days I have been reviewing what makes a Steve Jobs’ presentation so good. In particular I have been analysing the language he uses and when he uses key words and phrases.
Here are a list of a few things that are common throughout a Steve Jobs presentation that we can all learn from:
1. Do not begin your presentation with a list of contents.
Steve Jobs never begins a presentation with a slide of contents. A Steve Jobs presentation begins with a headline and nothing more. For example. In the October 2010 Special Event the ‘content’ slide was simply “The State Of The Mac” and that is all that was put on the slide.
You do not need to put a content slide with a list of contents. All you need is a ‘headline’ which captures the topic / subject of your presentation and then let your words do the rest. By putting a content slide into your presentation your audience are immediately going to think “oh no! Another 20th century presentation”
2. Focus only on two or three main features of a product
Apple is a technology company that develops and makes many products that contain very advanced, complicated technology. Much of this technology is so advanced that most of us, and indeed, a typical Apple customer is never going to understand or care about. When Apple talks about a new product they do not talk about all the advanced technology because they know most of their audience are not going to understand it. What Apple does is focus on two or three features that they think their audience are going to love. All the rest of the features can be read about or tried after the presentation.
When the IOS 4.1 operating system was launched it had over 100 new features. However, in the keynote presentation announcing this, Steve Jobs only listed five things (See image below) he then only showed two new things, the HDR photo and the Games Center.
3. Use superlative and positive adjectives – lots of them
The words that always stand out to me when I listen to a Steve Jobs’ presentation are all the positive adjectives and superlative adjectives he uses. Below are just a few that I heard during the September and October 2010 presentations:
“We’ve got some really cool stuff to show you this morning”
“We’ve got some fun stuff to share with you this morning”
“it’s really gorgeous“
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
“IOS is our operating system that powers our mobile devices and it’s been a revolution in terms of touch and apps
When you are presenting you need to demonstrate passion for your topic and by using these positive adjectives you help to make your presentation much more passionate.
So there are just a few things that I wanted share with you. I hope they prove useful to you in your next presentation.