I often have to design and then explain or even pitch complex processes with many dependencies that have to happen over time and have multiple conditionals. My audience is mostly technical, but sometimes is a mix of tech, business and marketing people. And suddenly I figure that a piece of scribbles like this works best:
I used to draw complex mindmaps that I would print on A3 paper and send around or bring to the meetings. I tried text in all kind of forms - from TL;DR to novel-sized google docs. I did powerpoints and even recorded videos.
And somehow I sense that I get best results with scribbles like these.
I was a little shy first. But then I noticed that scribbles were actually perceived well. Maybe since they look as a whiteboard at a meeting and people feel like they've joined in and immediately start contributing? =]
This community is quite diverse, so I have to ask you - what's your take? Would you prefer a scribble or a text or a powerpoint?
Top comments (2)
Do you draw the scribbles as you speak, or do you come with them pre-drawn?
I draw when I think. These were initially my thinking notes. A way to structure my thoughts. To see the picture better.
At one point I didn't have anything better to share and I saw that despite my chicken handwriting people got my point better than if I had worked on slides instead. Then I found this behaviour reproducible with different people.
Another theory is that my slides suck =) But I've been in developer relations for like 11 years. I had time to polish my slides-making and presenting skills.