Don't get Lost in Details

Those I don’t want to seem like an Apple spokesperson here.

I don’t work for Apple but when it comes to how to give technology presentations I believe we can all learn from Apple.

It’s no coincidence that the iPod was not the first piece of machinery that allowed people to store audio files but it was the simplest one and that’s one reason why it took off.

There is a reason why the iPhone is so popular and that it has a lot fewer things to push on it.

It actually has a lot fewer features than almost all cell phones before.

It is simpler.

So when it comes to technology Steve Jobs learned a long time ago that many people are still trying to learn and that is all the additional features all the additional gadgets all the different buttons to push don’t actually help.

It just serves to confuse consumers and slows down adoption rates makes it harder for people to do it.

And this is the big distinction between what engineers want and think of and what consumers want and the best technology leaders in the world the Steve Jobs of the world are able to bridge that gap and they can listen to ten thousand features the engineer wants to talk about in the speech in the presentation but then they listen to what actual customers say and customers focus on a few simple things.

I don’t wanna have to carry a thousand cities around to listen to my music simple things and then bridging the two together.

So when you’re giving your presentation you can’t go into every detail.

You can’t describe every feature in fact in many cases your technology shouldn’t have thousands of features and the whole key to success with many technological devices is limiting the number of features streamlining.

The same goes with your technology presentations.

The more you can streamline.

I don’t mean make it shorter in terms of minutes.

I mean streamlining it as far as the focus onto a handful of ideas.

The most important features in your technology product that results in a benefit for a human being a thousand songs in my pocket is a feature of the first iPod but it’s also a huge benefit that everyone could understand.

So please don’t get lost in the details.

Don’t try to explain every single technological aspect even though it’s a technology presentation focus on what’s really important.