How to prepare your tech speech

Tips for technical presentations and demos

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How to prepare your tech speech

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of public speaking at events that mattered to me, so just improvising wasn’t an option. My presentations often included technical demos, code, diagrams, and GitHub repositories.

To improve, I started practicing — at least five rehearsals per talk. While my talks were aimed at developers, the lessons I learned apply to any field. This post is divided into:

• Preparing content
• Practicing speech
• Day of the speech.

Enjoy, and share what works for you!

P.S. Here are some fun photos of me practicing with a fake microphone and an imaginary or half-imaginary (e.g., tired colleagues) audience!

Preparing content

I think the challenge of technical talks is to show something interesting enough, but not too complicated. There’s a tradeoff between complexity and how much people understand. Even now, I still overestimate the level of understanding among technical audiences. People lose focus, don’t listen to 100% of your talk, look at their phones, or just don’t have the same experience and knowledge. You have to prepare clear and simple content.

One life-changing point for me was when our CTO told me that he left a technical meetup earlier because the talks were “too technical”. Hearing this from one of the smartest people I know, who is super-excited about technology, helped me understand how even such people still appreciate engaging presentations.

1. Set clear objectives

• Define what you want the audience to understand or do after the demo. I always want people to understand what our company is building, plus I want them to approach me after the talk. Therefore I always end with encouraging people to go chat with me about X or Y and grab a company merch (which is a nice excuse for people to approach you).

2. Simpler is better

• Less is more with technical details
• Have a clear core message
• Remember that even technical audiences can get overwhelmed
• Share information in digestible portions

3. Gradually reduce content

• You can first prepare a presentation with more info, and then gradually reduce the content on slides as you practice. Sometimes you will see only during practice what parts of your message are better to explain in your own words, and what parts are best to show on the screen.
• Slides should be about key points, so you should converge towards less content. It will also allow you to use bigger fonts or more visuals, which looks good if people take pics or videos of you speaking.

4. Prepare plan B content

• If your talk contains demo, it’s good to have it recorded and saved in your laptop, in case the live version breaks or the internet is slow.
• If the practical part of your talk fails completely, it’s good to have a backup option where you at least show screenshots, diagrams, or other good explanations of what you were supposed to demonstrate.

Practicing speech

I need to practice because I am not a natural talent, but I recommend it to everyone.

1. Record your practices

• Record both audio and video and then watch and feel the cringe.
• Watch for body language metrics too, e.g., how much you look at the audience, if you stand straight, move too much or too little.

2. Practice in front of real people

• Get feedback from actual listeners. Ideally, people you respect a lot, because you will feel nervous in front of them. For me, it is much more challenging to talk in front of my coworkers and friends, compared to an audience at an event.
• You and the audience need to take it seriously, like real talk. Don’t joke around, make your listeners be strict.
• Tell the audience to test you by asking questions, and modeling a real audience. You can get a trivial question from someone who didn’t pay attention, a very complex technical question, or even an inappropriate question.

3. Prepare tricks for engaging the audience

• When I demo our company product, I ask questions as simple as “Who here has used our product”. When I talk about a new topic, I ask who has heard about it. During that, I try to look at as many people from the audience as possible. Even if they don’t raise their hands, they can make eye contact, nod, etc.
• Aim to connect with people, not just deliver content. From my experience, a few people always look super-bored when I look at them, but I try to look at those even more.

4. Don’t show insecurity

• Speak at a comfortable pace. It’s a big challenge not to talk too fast.
• Don’t say things like “I promise I won’t be talking long”. You need to believe your talk is actually interesting for people who came to listen to it.
• Don’t talk negatively about yourself or the topic of your presentation. It’s okay to make fun of things, but you shouldn’t put yourself down.

5. Measure your time

• From my experience, the actual presentation always ran shorter than rehearsals. I think it’s because when I am nervous I speak faster, and I might skip a few details of what I wanted to say.
• Keep track of timing during practice runs so you have a sense of how long your talk is going to take.
• For me, measuring the time also mitigates the fear that my content is too brief.

6. Improve with every iteration

• Focus on different aspects each time
• I use a notebook where after each practice, I set 4–5 goals for the next one, e.g., “Now I will try to make more pauses”. or “Now I will make the ending more friendly and positive.” It’s difficult to keep all goals in mind at once, so this is a good way to achieve them.

7. Prepare questions strategy

• Have a strategy for handling questions with unknown answers.
• I tend to panic when asked tricky questions, so I have prepared a clear process of what I do in that case. I first try to paraphrase the tricky question, if I am unsure, I try to answer more generic (e.g., “In general we approach this problem by X, and Y,”), if needed, I redirect the person to our documentation or GitHub, and then I ask if I answered the question.
• If all this isn’t enough, it’s okay to say you’ll follow up after the presentation. I think anything is better than panicking and saying “I don’t know”.
• My big learning is that I often mistake a beginner-level question for an advanced one. I tend to overestimate people’s understanding of the product, so when they ask something that I don’t understand, I assume they know something I don’t, while in reality, it’s usually the case where they didn’t pay attention and ask something very basic or their question doesn’t make sense. Be prepared for this.
• Also, be prepared for people asking about things that you just said. :)

8. Practice with a big screen

• If possible, rehearse in an actual presentation space, ideally with a TV or projector. It feels different to just show things on your laptop vs on a big screen.
• Also, don’t forget to test speaking equipment. If I present on my laptop, I always close all unnecessary apps and tabs before the talk. It makes me calmer and more focused.

Day of the speech

1. Get comfortable outfit

• Get clothes and accessories that you don’t need to adjust and such that you feel comfortable that people are looking at you
• If you have restless hands like me, you can get a piece of accessory that you can play with during the talk. I often wear rubber bands on my wrist or necklace.
• Pick something where it isn’t visible if you are sweating

1. Have a glass of wine

• If you know me, you know that I don’t drink alcohol much, and avoid it even at social events. However, if I have a glass of red wine, it’s before public speaking. Before every talk, I feel my heart beating like I’ve been hunted by wild animals, and a glass of wine helps me feel normal.
• I don’t want to encourage anyone to do this (because alcohol is bad, obviously). My point is to just develop a routine that helps you feel comfortable and maintain a good flow. Whatever works for you.

Thanks for reading & looking forward to hearing your tips and experience with public speaking.