5 Presentation Mistakes to Avoid

Creating a presentation is no easy task — a fact you probably discovered when presenting to an audience or crafting a slide deck for the first time. Anyone can throw together a handful of slides and call it a presentation, but an effective presentation? That takes time and effort.

It’s true that presentation pitfalls are common, but they are also avoidable. I’ve rounded up five of the biggest presentation mistakes to avoid below, with my best tips for preventing these mistakes and creating a presentation that achieves your goals.

1. No End Goal
2. Cluttered Slides
3. Abstractions or Insider Jargon
4. Coming Up Short
5. Failing to Edit
6. Conclusion

Mistake #1: No End Goal

Without a clearly defined objective for a presentation, there’s no central focus to guide the presentation from one slide to the next. The result is likely to be a mish-mosh of slides that don’t tell a clear story from start to finish.

This is why I recommend deciding on your end goal before you begin creating your presentation. Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I want my audience to walk away remembering?” The answer should give you a goal to work toward with each slide.

Like I tell my clients, you start with a big idea in mind. Let’s say you want to convince your audience that music and art should be included in a school’s curriculum. That’s your “big picture” end goal, and each slide should present one smaller idea that supports the larger objective.

Mistake #2: Cluttered Slides

To reiterate the last point, you should have just one idea per slide. Furthermore, that one idea should be concise.

The common mistake here is putting too much information on a slide. Consequently, the slide becomes over-cluttered. This can be a problem when you’re presenting because people will be focused on trying to decipher your slide rather than listening to your presentation. 

When you keep each slide simple, with only words and images that support your presentation, then you’ll more easily keep your audience’s attention. Your slides will become supportive material that advance your story rather than distract from it.

Mistake #3: Abstractions or Insider Jargon

Another common mistake I see is expecting the audience to know everything that you as the presenter know. Because of this faulty assumption, they might create their presentation using language that’s either too abstract to be able to grasp, or that includes jargon only insiders would understand. 

Remember, each slide should tell a story — and stories should be concrete, easy to understand and visualize, and free of any distracting verbiage that doesn’t add to the story.

Imagine you’re explaining a concept to someone who has little to no familiarity with the topic. Anything else is just empty words and should be edited out of both your presentation deck and your voiceover for the presentation.

Mistake #4: Coming Up Short

In the interest of being concise and telling a story, some people might actually go too far. They may avoid including more slides simply because they think it’s going to require more time to present.

I’m all for writing with precision (see point #3). However, you might find that in doing so, you’re leaving out details that are crucial for your end goal (point #1).

Instead of thinking in terms of having only a certain number of slides in your presentation, think of all the main points you need to make. Run through your presentation and look for any repetitive information. You might be able to condense certain points into one slide. At the same time, take note of the details that need to remain in order to complete your story, slide by slide.

Mistake #5: Failing to Edit

This misstep goes hand in hand with point #4. If you leave every detail in your presentation, you could run into several problems, all of which we’ve discussed above:

• Your end goal gets diluted
• Your slides have too much information, ambiguities, or jargon 
• Your presentation doesn’t have a story with a beginning, middle, and end
• Your slides don’t have enough information to support your goal
• You lack certain visuals that support your presentation

Conclusion

To avoid these problems, take time to edit your presentation and make sure you’ve distilled each slide into meaningful messages that your audience will understand. I always recommend running through a presentation with a practice audience and asking for their feedback. Ask them what their key takeaway is — and if it doesn’t align with your goal, then take a closer look at any areas that need more work.

Have you ever run into any of these pitfalls? How did you manage them? I’m curious to know your thoughts. Feel free to learn more about my presentation design and storytelling services, or message me if you’d like to discuss any presentations you’ve got in the works.