I’m just finishing up with a book by Dan Roam called The Back of the Napkin, Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.  There’s a ton of useful stuff in there, but I wanted to focus on one particular piece for this post because I think it is of enormous importance for anyone who presents or develops presentations.

We’ve heard forever that a picture is worth a thousand words.  We also know from research (and common sense) that’s it’s not the best idea to fill a slide with words in front of an audience and just stand there and read it to them.  So the question becomes, how do we use pictures to relay the information we need our audience to know.  I’ll give you a hint… it’s not with random clip art scattered throughout your presentation.

This is where The Back of the Napkin comes in.  According the book, there are 6 questions that can help with almost any problem.  You’ve heard them all before: Who/What, How Much, Where, When, How, and Why.  Where the book goes a step further is by identifying pictures you can use to relay the answers to your audience.  It is as follows:

  • Who/What – Portrait (or a stick figure)
  • How Much – Chart
  • Where – Map
  • When – Timeline
  • How – Flowchart
  • Why – Plot

One important point here is to not get caught up in your ability to draw.  These are all things that you should be able to do in a simple way with chart paper or a more elaborate way with PowerPoint, Keynote, or other presentation software.  Also, the author brings up that there are certain “versions” of the pictures you draw depending on a number of factors.  His book lays it all out.  Check out the website and www.thebackofthenapkin.com.  For more information on this particular section, click on “D. The 6 Way we See and Show” on the interactive picture of a napkin on the homepage.