Checklist for Talks

A checklist for talks and presentations, for the benefit of myself and students I work with.

• Slides have slide numbers
• All text (including text in plots) is readable (font size ≥ 28)
• Take at least 1 to 2 minutes for each slide. E.g., if you have 10 minutes for your presentation, you have 5 to 10 slides.
• Presentation starts with WHY: societal context and problem statement
• If you present research questions
  • The research questions are addressed throughout the presentation (probably through the contributions).
  • During the presentation, remind the audience when you address a research question.
• Presentation conveys core contributions (e.g., design, experiment results), but skips unnecessary details
• If you present a design
  • Explain the design requirements
  • Explain the design overview
  • Explain detailed parts of the design if necessary
  • Explain how your design addresses the design requirements
• For each result, sufficient time (e.g., 2 minutes) allocated to present the plot/table:
  • Say what the plot shows on a high level (e.g., provides evidence for a claim made in paper)
  • Explain the horizontal axis
  • Explain the vertical axis
  • Explain what the boxes/curves/… in the plot mean
  • Explain what the boxes/curves/… show
  • Explain how this leads to the high-level observation mentioned at the start
• Presentation ends with a Take-Home Message, summarizing the talk and tying results back to problem statement