Impactful Presentations

Craft human-centered presentations that connect, resonate, and inspire
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Information alone will never move people. Learn to craft human-centered presentations by surfacing what matters to your audience and delivering your message in a way that resonates and inspires action. Go beyond presenting just the facts and figures; give compelling presentations that are meaningful and memorable. Gain tools and techniques that will help you develop and deliver presentations that have the power to shift the way people think, feel, and behave.

Course Outcomes
  • Deliver presentations that spark a shift in beliefs, behaviors, and mindsets.
  • Sequence and convey your information in a way that will create a meaningful journey for your audience.
  • Open hearts and minds by developing a trusted relationship with your audience.
  • Apply techniques to help people pay attention and remember the information you share.
  • Practice with unique presentation methods in order to create an engaging experience for your audience.
Part of Certificate Programs
Communicating for Impact Certificate
Course Themes
Presenting Storytelling Audience Engagement
Format Online Cohort Course
Start Date
Quantity
Duration 5 Weeks
Time 4 Hours/Week
Price
$599
$599
Download Syllabus

What You'll Learn

Week 1: Introduction - Move Your Audience

Understand how information and emotion work together to create presentations that have the power to spark change and inspire new mindsets and behaviors.
2 Video Lessons
  • Messages That Spark Change—It’s not what you say, but how you say it
  • Mentor Moment—Try something new
1 Assignment

  • Choose Your Presentation—Choose the 10-15 minute presentation you will be workshopping throughout the course and gather any existing content you have. Identify your audience and your starting assumptions for what you must do or include in this presentation.

Week 2: Plan the Journey

Create a compelling arc through the information by combining your goals with audience needs.
4 Video Lessons
  • What’s the Point?—Identify the goal of your presentation
  • It’s Not About You—Empathize with your audience
  • Shape Your Story—Build emotional appeal and interest
  • Mentor Moment—Start with emotion
1 Assignment

  • Crafting Story Arcs—Identify the beats of your presentation. Choose a story arc to experiment with and align your beats to the arc, then map the accompanying emotional journey of the audience. Iterate and adjust your arc to have more impact. Use your learnings from creating arcs to revisit and hone your Big Idea and the shift you want to create in the audience.

Week 3: Become the Guide

Develop a trusted connection with your audience that opens their hearts and minds to your message.
3 Video Lessons
  • Create a Connection—Bridge the divide between you and the audience
  • Establish Your Credibility—Inspire trust and belief
  • Keep It Human—Present as your authentic self
1 Assignment

  • Design for Connection, Credibility, and Authenticity—Select different options for building a connection, establishing credibility, and presenting authenticity and brainstorm how you might bring them to life. Choose one to explore fully by building a prototype. Use learnings from this experimentation to revisit and hone your Big Idea and the shift you want to create in the audience.

Week 4: Make it Memorable

Design your presentation to align with the way the brain focuses on and remembers information.
4 Video Lessons
  • Best Intentions; Bad Presentations—Avoid common presentation mistakes
  • Make Patterns—Encourage understanding and retention
  • Break Patterns—Shake things up to capture their attention
  • Mentor Moment—Find the medium that fits your message
2 Assignments

  • Create Pattern Breaks—Brainstorm ways to break patterns using space, the senses, and interactivity. Choose one idea to explore fully by building a prototype. Hone your Big Idea and the shift you want to create in your audience based on what you have learned through your experimentation.

  • Build a First Draft—Gather all of the feedback you have received, insights from experimentation, and favorite methods from the first three lessons. Consider the holistic audience journey and design hooks to keep your audience engaged. Bring it all together into a full first draft of your presentation. Use learnings from this experimentation to revisit and hone your Big Idea and the shift you want to create in the audience.

Week 5: Conclusion - Look Ahead

The end of one presentation is the beginning of another. Learn how to end presentations in a way that gives the ideas within them room to grow and evolve.
3 Video Lessons
  • Bringing It All Together—A Presentation Case Study
  • Mentor Moment—Encouragement to explore
  • The End Is The Beginning—Evolve your story and yourself
1 Assignment

  • Presentation Finale—Design a meaningful finale for your presentation. Using insights from the feedback you have received, iterate your presentation into a new draft. Reflect back on your experience over these five weeks to understand the skills and techniques you have gained and areas for you to continue growing.

Meet Your Instructors

Ann Kim

Director of Health & Well-Being at IDEO

Ann is a design researcher with roots in anthropology and journalism. Prior to IDEO, she made documentaries for public television. Filmmaking taught her how to visually tell stories as well as how to find, edit, and shape them. At IDEO, she does the same thing, taking the raw materials—interviews, data, observations—and crafting them into stories that inspire.

More About Ann
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The World In 50 Years

Ann Kim

Director of Health & Well-Being at IDEO

Ann is a design researcher with roots in anthropology and journalism. Her portfolio spans the design of HIV prevention products, digital tools to help kids build emotional strength, and the re-design of the US digital immigration experience. Prior to IDEO, she worked for over a decade as a filmmaker and journalist; her latest documentary, “Lovesick,” is about matchmaking for HIV+ singles in India. Filmmaking taught her how to visually tell stories as well as how to find, edit, and shape them. At IDEO, she does the same thing, taking the raw materials—interviews, data, observations—and crafting them into stories that inspire.

From 2016 to 2017, she served as the Chief Design Officer for U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Ann holds a joint degree in Anthropology and the Study of Religion from Harvard College. She’s a board member of Noora Health and the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship, and a past fellow of the Sundance Institute. Ann is an avid traveler, with the Okavango Delta and Tibet among her favorite spots, and an obsessive photographer.

Alex Gallafent

Design Director at IDEO

Alex is a designer, theater artist, and journalist. Throughout his career, Alex has been figuring out the things audiences need and how best to bring them to life. He’s presented stories on theater stages in London and New York, in broadcast journalism for the BBC, and across the world with IDEO.

More About Alex
More From Alex Gallafent
BBC/Public Radio International
Radio Journalism

Alex Gallafent

Design Director at IDEO

Alex is a designer, theater artist, and journalist. Throughout his career, Alex has been figuring out the things audiences need and how best to bring them to life. He’s presented stories on theater stages in London and New York, in broadcast journalism for the BBC, and across the world with IDEO.

Alex currently leads the New York wing of IDEO’s Design for Food studio. He’s worked with major clients in hospitality, media, government, financial services, and beyond. He’s also taught design thinking, storytelling, and research at New York University, The School of Visual Arts, and The New School. A former correspondent for US public radio and the BBC World Service, he’s a past Fellow at the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins. Alex studied philosophy at Oxford University and trained in classical acting at LAMDA. He’s performed Shakespeare in Tokyo and written music for plays in London’s West End. In New York, Alex performs improv, plays drums for the city's only improvised rock'n'roll storytelling band, and hosts as many dinner parties as possible.

Collaborate with a Global Community

Work with Expert Coaches

Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.

Expand Your Network

Join breakout discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection. Participate in optional virtual live conversations led by teaching team members and available twice weekly.

Receive Feedback

Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.

Learn more about the IDEO U Learning Experience

What Others Are Saying

Michael Jaff
Dr. Michael Jaff Chief Medical Officer & VP Boston Scientific
Impactful Presentations
Cohort Course

“Having spent my career presenting to varied audiences, there is no doubt that most presentations are too data-heavy and the audience is lost early on. There is no one better than IDEO colleagues Ann and Alex to provide novel and impactful skills to those who present for a living….or for anyone who just wants to get better at presentation. Not only will you learn great new skills, but you will have fun doing so!”

Dr. Michael Jaff Boston, MA

Go Deeper with Certificate Programs

Impactful Presentations is part of a certificate program:

View Certificate Programs

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Enroll As a Team

The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.

How to Enroll as a Team