Portfolio of Tech Talks
— Musings of Dr. Jamie Hsu, 7.17.2019
In my consulting work, I have come across many presentations and project reviews by technical people. They are PhDs, Masters, scientists, engineers, executives, and team members. In their speeches, they try to justify or get more funding and impress their sponsors and bosses. They also want to be recognized by their peers as the pioneers and experts in their technical field.
Although they all work very hard to prepare and give their speeches, these speakers often have one fatal flaw — not adequately tailoring the talk for the right audience with the right content. They often use the same jargon-laden Powerpoints for all occasions and then wonder why the audience is not impressed or interested in the speech.
To achieve success in a project and address various technical and business objectives, a person needs to be able to make 5 different types of speeches: Elevator Speech, TED Talk, VC Pitch, Commercialization Proposal, and Tech Conference Lecture. The key characteristics of each of the speeches are summarized in the accompanying table.
Initially, it may feel unnatural and uncomfortable for many techies to summarize their lifelong work in a two minute elevator speech. It is equally uncomfortable for them to brag about the future market and earning potential to a group of venture capital investors while the R&D work is not done yet. It may also be unnatural for them to tell their technical peers that their work is unique and path-breaking.
Regardless of how tough it might be, techies should master all types of speeches to convey their work to the general public, the big boss, the investors, and technical critics. Only then can they achieve both technical excellence and commercial success to benefit the users and society.
There are many books and training materials available to help with each type of speech. It is worth the time and investment of every aspiring techie to learn and master these speeches. Good luck.
多般演講的功效
-作者 許俊宸博士
-中譯 薛乃綺
在我做諮詢顧問時，遇到過許多由技術人員所作的簡報及專案的審查報告，當中包括有碩/博士、科學家、工程師、领導管理人、或團隊成員。在演講過程中，他們試圖證明或想獲得更多的贊助資金、又或者想給贊助商和老闆留下深刻印象。他們也同時希望被同行認可，能作為技術領域的先驅和專家。
雖然他們都非常努力地準備和發表演講，但他們的演說往往有一個致命的缺陷–並未充分以合適的內容去對準聽眾的需求。他們常在所有場合中，以同樣的話術進行簡報，卻不能了解為何觀眾没有對演講留下深刻的印象或興趣。
為了在專案中取得成功，技術人員需要能夠做出5種不同類型的演講來實現技術及業務目標：電梯簡報、TED演講、募資簡報、提案簡報、以及研討會演說；每種類型的演講都有不同的特色，綜整如附表中。
也許在一開始，對於很多搞技術的人來說，用2分鐘的電梯簡報去總結他這輩子的工作不是那麼自在舒服。當研發工作尚未完成時，就要他們對著一群風險資本家去吹噓未來市場大餅及可能的獲利，也同樣令他們感到不安。而要他們去告訴同行說，自己做的事情是獨特的、是领先前瞻的，也同樣覺得不自在。
無論这是多麼艱難，都必須掌握利用所有類型的演說，將自己的研究成果傳達給大眾、給大老闆、給投資者，以及技術評論家。只有如此，才能同時實現兼具技術領先以及產業化的成功，讓使用者跟社會都能因此受惠。
針對所列出的每種類型演講，市面上已有許多書籍和訓練教材可以參考使用。每個有抱負的技術人員，都該投入時間去學習及掌握這些演講技巧。祝大家好運囉！
