数据科学/数据分析/教育 (Data Science / Data Analytics / Education)

Being a marketing major prior to marketing analytics, presenting was a large part of the coursework I was involved in. Marketing strategy overviews, sales pitches, and case presentations were all a large part of my studies in marketing. Presenting is a very important skill to have, and personally, I’ve never had a problem speaking in front of an audience. Being a musician, I’ve also performed in front of large audiences. You’d think a presentation on analytics or modeling would be the same right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case in the professional world.

在市场营销分析之前，作为市场营销专业的学生，​​演讲是我参与课程的很大一部分。市场营销策略概述，销售策略和案例演示都是我在市场营销研究中的很大一部分。 演讲是一项非常重要的技能，就我个人而言，在观众面前讲话从未有任何问题。 作为一名音乐家，我也在众多观众面前表演过。 您认为关于分析或建模的演示文稿是正确的吗？ 不幸的是，在专业领域并非如此。

This summer, I had the opportunity to do two presentations on analytical topics, one in front of my department, and the other in front of the executive team. Now while I am not by any means a full-time professional analyst (hopefully soon!), these two presentations completely changed my perspective on analytical presentations and how to approach them. I’d like to share my thoughts on this, and hopefully help elevate your presentations! In this story, we are going to approach presenting in three stages: research, preparation, and presentation. Let’s dive in!

今年夏天，我有机会就分析主题进行了两次演讲，一个在我部门面前，另一个在执行团队面前。 现在，尽管我绝不是专职专业分析师(希望很快！)，但这两个演示文稿完全改变了我对分析演示文稿以及如何进行分析的看法。 我想分享我的想法，希望对您的演讲有所帮助！ 在这个故事中，我们将通过三个阶段来进行呈现：研究，准备和呈现。 让我们潜入吧！

Disclaimer: I am not a full time data professional, I am simply relaying my experiences from my summer internships and personal practice. This is not meant to tell you what exactly you need to know, rather, this is to give you some practical advice from experiences I’ve had. For advanced technical information, please check out Towards Data Science. If you are interested in some advice to help you with presenting, keep reading!

免责声明：我不是专职数据专业人士，我只是在总结我在暑期实习和个人实践中的经验。 这并不是要告诉您确切需要了解什么，而是要根据我的经验为您提供一些实用建议。 有关高级技术信息，请查阅 Towards Data Science 。 如果您对一些可以帮助您提出建议的建议感兴趣，请继续阅读！

第一阶段：研究 (Stage I: Research)

If you are presenting something, chances are that you have been given a business problem to tackle. It could be something like pulling sales data, analyzing performance, or even creating a machine learning model. No matter what business problem you have, there are some things you should keep in mind as your progress through this stage:

如果您要提出的东西，很可能会给您一个业务问题来解决。 可能是诸如获取销售数据，分析性能，甚至创建机器学习模型之类的东西。 无论您遇到什么业务问题，在此阶段的进展中都应牢记以下几点：

记录您的过程 (Document Your Processes)

Depending on who your audience is, you could get questions about how you came up with your numbers and conclusions. Keeping a “number trail” so you can show your work will give off a sense of professionalism and credibility if you are posed with such a question. Being able to explain how you got to your numbers in a concise way will go a much longer way than stumbling through how you might’ve came up with the numbers you got. This all starts with documenting your processes!

根据您的听众是谁，您可能会遇到有关如何得出数字和结论的问题。 如果您提出这样的问题，那么保持“数字足迹”以便您可以展示自己的作品将会散发出专业感和信誉感。 能够用一种简洁的方式解释您的数字，比绊倒自己想出的数字的方式要长得多。 这一切都从记录您的过程开始！

制定项目计划 (Create a Project Plan)

This is more of a workflow/project management topic, but it is also very important when it comes to presenting. Presentations are typically one of the last stages of a project, so using good project management practices will help you stay on time and meet your deadlines. Create a project plan that outlines resources, tools, and milestones with a timeline. From my experience, data professionals enjoy using CRISP-DM and Agile methodologies, however, many data professionals also create their own workflows based on their own experiences. Whatever you use, make sure you use it so you don’t let time get away from you come presentation day.

这更多是工作流/项目管理主题，但在呈现时也非常重要。 演示通常是项目的最后阶段之一，因此，使用良好的项目管理实践将有助于您按时完成任务并按时完成任务。 创建一个项目计划，以时间表概述资源，工具和里程碑。 根据我的经验，数据专业人员喜欢使用CRISP-DM和敏捷方法，但是，许多数据专业人员也根据自己的经验创建自己的工作流程。 无论您使用什么，请确保使用它，以免浪费时间来参加演示日。

制定应变计划 (Have a Contingency Plan)

There will be times where you will have something completely planned out for your presentation. You know what data you need to analyze, where to get your data from, and who your audience is. Sometimes things happen though that throw off your plans. When I was working on a presentation, I planned to survey a population within a company I was doing work for. Right before I was going to send the survey out, human resources told me that it was against data protection policies, and that I couldn’t send it out. I had a contingency plan in place to survey a different population, and was able to get it approved and stay on track to present. Had I not created a contingency plan, I would’ve had a much more difficult time putting my presentation together in time to present.

有时您会为演示文稿完全计划一些内容。 您知道需要分析哪些数据，从何处获取数据以及受众是谁。 有时候事情会发生，尽管这使您无法完成计划。 在进行演示时，我计划调查我正在为其工作的公司中的人口。 就在我要发送调查之前，人力资源部门告诉我这违反了数据保护政策，因此我无法发送调查。 我制定了应急计划来调查其他人群，并且能够批准它并按计划进行演示。 如果我没有制定应急计划，那么将我的演讲放到现在就很难了。

第二阶段：准备 (Stage II: Preparation)

In my presentation process, research is about turning data into information. In preparation, information is churned into insights. Ideally, you have done your exploratory data analysis and data cleaning in the research stage, and now you are modeling and coming to conclusions. Here are some ideas to keep in mind as you are working on turning information into insights:

在我的演示过程中，研究涉及将数据转化为信息。 在准备过程中，信息会转化为见解。 理想情况下，您已经在研究阶段完成了探索性数据分析和数据清理，现在您正在建模并得出结论。 在将信息转化为见解时，请牢记以下一些想法：

了解你的观众 (Know Your Audience)

Knowing your audience is one of the most important variables to keep in mind when preparing and presenting an analytics presentation. A director of business intelligence will understand the information and insights you present in a different way than a vice president of marketing. Always know your audience beforehand because the audience should be the centerpiece of what your presentation looks like and what you say. If you haven’t read one of my previous stories, Data Visualization Audiences and Scenarios, definitely check it out, as the concept of knowing your audience is a prominent theme in that story.

准备和展示分析演示文稿时，了解您的受众是最重要的变量之一。 商业智能总监将以与营销副总裁不同的方式理解您提供的信息和见解。 事先始终要了解您的听众，因为听众应该是您的演示文稿和讲话内容的核心。 如果您还没有读过我以前的故事之一，“ 数据可视化受众和场景” ，请务必查看一下，因为了解受众的概念是该故事中的重要主题。

保持幻灯片简单 (Keep Your Slide Deck Simple)

One big takeaway I took from this summer was how to prepare slide decks. In many universities, presentation software is thought of as art. Your slide deck should have fifty slides, two paragraphs on each slide, and six visualizations on each slide right? Not at most companies. Length depends on what you are presenting, but the goal should be to have the least amount of slides and words as possible. Visualizations should be used, but they should take up most of the individual slide. We’ve all been in a presentation where we saw the first slide with a very large amount of content, and kind of just blanked out. Information overload scares audiences, so rather than just trying to shove it into a slide, use the slides as support rather than just the whole presentation. So if I’m talking about sales performance and ways to improve sales for the next quarter, I would probably show the numbers on one slide, the graph on the next, and the insights on the third slide. Audiences don’t just want a presentation, they want a journey.

我从今年夏天开始的一大收获是如何准备滑板。 在许多大学中，演示软件被认为是一种艺术。 您的幻灯片平台应该有50张幻灯片，每张幻灯片上有两个段落，每张幻灯片上有六个可视化效果，对吗？ 最多的公司都不是。 长度取决于您要呈现的内容，但目标应该是尽量减少幻灯片和文字的数量。 应该使用可视化，但是它们应该占据大部分单独的幻灯片。 我们所有人都在一个演示文稿中，在那里看到了第一张幻灯片，其中包含大量内容，并且有些空白。 信息过载使观众感到恐惧，因此，不仅仅是将其推入幻灯片，还应将幻灯片用作支持，而不仅仅是整个演示文稿。 因此，如果我要讨论下一个季度的销售业绩和改善销售的方法，则可能会在一张幻灯片上显示数字，在下一张幻灯片上显示图表，在第三张幻灯片上显示洞察力。 观众不仅需要演示，还需要一段旅程。

“Audiences don’t just want a presentation, they want a journey.”

“受众不仅需要演示，还需要一段旅程。”

练习确实有帮助 (Practice Really Helps)

I had to give a presentation to the executive team and senior vice presidents as part of my internship this past summer. I was on a team with two other interns. As a team, we practiced our presentation at least seven to ten times. I’ll get into this in another point, but analytical presentations are quite different than sales or marketing presentations. You can’t second guess yourself or pitch your data. If the numbers are correct, than you should know that they are right! When you get in front of a group of people, your credibility and confidence is put at risk, therefore, many people (including myself) automatically say the words “probably” or “should”. These should be avoided at all costs, and practice helps with this. With time pertaining, practice your presentation at least five to ten times so you can feel confident about it. If you feel confident, so will your audience. Our job is to make our audience feel confident about our data and insights, so that they can feel confident in their decisions that could directly influence the company.

去年夏天，作为实习的一部分，我不得不向执行团队和高级副总裁作演讲。 我和另外两名实习生一起工作。 作为一个团队，我们至少练习了七到十次演示。 我将在另一点对此进行讨论，但是分析性演示与销售或营销演示完全不同。 您无法再猜测自己或推销数据。 如果数字正确，那么您应该知道它们是正确的！ 当您站在一群人面前时，您的信誉和信心就会受到威胁，因此，许多人(包括我自己)都会自动说“可能”或“应该”。 应不惜一切代价避免这些情况，实践可以帮助实现这一点。 随着时间的流逝，至少要练习五到十次演示，以使您对此充满信心。 如果您有信心，听众也一样。 我们的工作是使听众对我们的数据和见解充满信心，从而使他们对可以直接影响公司的决策充满信心。

第三阶段：介绍 (Stage III: Presentation)

Now that you’ve done your research and put your presentation together, it’s time to actually present. While presentations can be daunting, here’s a few tips that have helped me when presenting analytical topics:

现在您已经完成了研究并将演示文稿放在一起，现在该进行实际演示了。 虽然演讲可能令人生畏，但以下一些技巧在介绍分析性主题时对我有帮助：

避免补语 (Avoid Filler Words)

Avoid using words and phrases such as “like”, “um”, “I think”, “I assume”, etc. Now this is a very difficult thing to put into practice, but it will elevate your presentations. When you are in a presentation and nervously say, “I assume that sales will increase next year”, that will make your audience question your credibility. Most likely, you will have an idea if sales will increase or decrease based on your data, so rather than saying, “I assume that sales will increase next year”, say something like, “I expect that sales will increase next year”. This adds a touch of confidence, which gives your audience confidence in your credibility.

避免使用诸如“喜欢”，“嗯”，“我认为”，“我假设”之类的词和短语。现在这很难付诸实践，但会提高您的演示效果。 当您在演示文稿中紧张地说：“我认为明年销量会增加”时，这会使您的听众质疑您的信誉。 最有可能的是，您将根据数据确定销售量是增加还是减少，因此，您不必说“我认为明年销售量会增加”，而是说“我希望明年销售量会增加”。 这增加了信心，使听众对您的信誉充满信心。

与屏幕互动 (Interact with the Screen)

Presentations are a journey. If you want your audience to pay attention, you need to guide them through your slides. Let’s say you have a graph showing marketing engagement projections over the next year. Rather than sitting there talking about the projections, I would recommend getting up and moving near the screen and pointing to the different data points as you explain your findings. This will help your audience make sense of what they are seeing. If you remember visiting a college that you knew nothing about by yourself, it probably wasn’t that enjoyable. However, if you visited a college you knew nothing about AND had a tour guide to help you, that was probably a much more enjoyable experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this is also applicable. In a Zoom or Skype meeting, you can use your mouse cursor to simulate pointing at the screen in person.

演示是一个旅程。 如果要让观众注意，则需要引导他们浏览幻灯片。 假设您有一张图表，显示下一年的市场营销参与度预测。 建议您不要站在那里谈论投影，而是建议您站起来并靠近屏幕，并在解释您的发现时指向不同的数据点。 这将帮助您的听众理解他们所看到的。 如果您还记得去过一所自己并不了解的大学，那可能就不那么愉快了。 但是，如果您访问了一所大学，那么您一无所知，并且有一个导游可以帮助您，那可能是一种更加愉快的体验。 在COVID-19大流行期间，这也适用。 在Zoom或Skype会议中，您可以使用鼠标光标模拟面对面的指向。

保持相关解释 (Keep Your Explanation Relevant)

Domain knowledge and department knowledge is important when presenting. If you are presenting to other analysts and data scientists, it’s probably acceptable to go into detail about your regression model or mean average error. If you are presenting to sales executives, this probably is not the right direction to go. For example, I used linear regression as a tool in my executive team presentation this summer, and rather then going into detail about how I set up the regression or what variables I assigned in Python, I discussed how the relationships between the variables was important. This goes back to knowing your audience, which is the most powerful concept you can incorporate in your presentation.

介绍时，领域知识和部门知识很重要。 如果您要向其他分析师和数据科学家介绍，则可以详细了解回归模型或平均误差。 如果您要向销售主管介绍，这可能不是正确的方向。 例如，今年夏天，我在执行团队的演讲中使用线性回归作为工具，然后更详细地介绍了如何设置回归或在Python中分配了哪些变量，而是讨论了变量之间的关系如何重要。 这可以追溯到了解您的听众，这是您可以在演示文稿中使用的最强大的概念。

结论 (Conclusion)

I hope that these tips will be helpful in your presentations! As data students and professionals, our job is to act as tour guides into our worlds. We have a very distinct and different line of work than other parts of a business, yet our information is incredibly important to the success of a business. Bring your passion of data into your presentations, and your audience will notice! Be well, and stay safe!

我希望这些技巧对您的演示会有所帮助！ 作为数据专业的学生和专业人员，我们的工作是充当进入世界的导游。 与业务的其他部分相比，我们拥有截然不同的工作线，但是我们的信息对于业务的成功至关重要。 将您对数据的热情带入演示文稿中，您的听众将注意到！ 健康，并保持安全！

Check out some of my other stories!

看看我的其他一些故事！

Data Visualization Audiences and Scenarios

数据可视化的受众和场景

Three Tech Stacks for Aspiring Analysts

面向有抱负的分析师的三大技术栈

10 Tips for a Successful Internship

成功实习的10个秘诀

What I Learned as a Marketing Analytics Intern

我作为营销分析实习生学到的知识

A Day in the Life of a Marketing Analytics Intern

营销分析实习生的一天

To contact me or receive more content, follow me on Twitter @BMNAnalytics!

要与我联系或接收更多内容，请在Twitter @ BMNAnalytics 上关注我 ！