Hands-On Activity: Practice presenting

Activity overview

Earlier in this course, you learned about what makes an effective presentation. In this activity, you will create screenshots of visualizations in the dashboard from your previous activity. Then, you'll add these jpegs to a new presentation, record yourself presenting, and evaluate your delivery and slides.

By the time you complete this activity, you will understand the steps involved in creating an effective presentation and reflect on how well you do when delivering a presentation yourself. This will enable you to successfully deliver presentations in the future, which is essential to your career as a data analyst.

Create screenshots of your dashboard

Before you create your presentation, you need to capture screenshots from the Tableau dashboard you created in the previous activity, Hands-On Activity: Create your first Tableau dashboard.

1. Go to Tableau Online and log in to your account. Retrieve the dashboard you created from the Recents page.

The way you capture screenshots will differ based on the operating system you are using. Here are some pointers on how to save your visualizations:

2. Click the download icon in the toolbar, then Image from the dropdown menu. This will save the visualization you created as a .png file, which you can insert into a slide presentation.

OR

3. Take a screenshot of each visualization using the command that corresponds to your operating system:

• Chromebook: Press Ctrl + Show windows icon (For non-Chrome OS keyboards, press Ctrl + F5).
• Mac: Press Shift + Command + 4.
• Windows: Use the snipping tool—refer to this Microsoft Support page.

Note: If you do not find your computer or laptop listed above, please refer to your manufacturer’s reference guide or search online for a quick tutorial.

Prepare a presentation

Now that you have your dashboard screenshots, it’s time to create your presentation.

To prepare your presentation, you should first consider your audience. In this activity, you will build a presentation for an audience of stakeholders. They aren’t closely involved in the project, but are curious about the analysis you have completed, the dashboard you have produced, and your key findings. Next, you can create your slides.

The first slide in your presentation should be a title slide, including the title of your presentation, your name, and the date of your presentation. Each of the next slides should have one or two of your dashboard screenshots. They should also include bullet points describing the context of your screenshots. Finally, you should include a closing slide with your final take-aways.

For this simple presentation, you only need a few simple slides. In future presentations, you will include more specific information and therefore need more slides.

Next, you can create your slides in presentation software.

Create your slides

To create your slides, use whichever presentation software you feel comfortable with. If you’re unsure of which one to use or don’t own presentation software, use one of these free options:

• Google Slides (Google account required)
• Microsoft 365 (Microsoft account required)
• Prezi (login required)

Record yourself

Use a smartphone, digital camera, or computer webcam to record a video of yourself presenting the visualizations you created. You can use Screencastify or a free trial of Camtasia to record the slides of your presentation. Deliver your presentation in 2 to 3 minutes. Check that your lighting is bright enough and the focus of your lens captures a clear image. Then upload your file to your computer.

Evaluating your presentation

Watch the video of your presentation. As you watch it, go through the following checklist. Each point is related to a best practice for presentations.

Do you:

• Use an attention-grabbing opening?
• Start with broad ideas and later talk about specific details?
• Speak in short sentences?
• Pause for five seconds after showing a data visualization?
• Pause intentionally at certain points?
• Keep the pitch of your voice level?
• Stand still and move with purpose?
• Maintain good posture?
• Look at your audience (or camera) while speaking?
• Keep your message concise?
• End by explaining why the data analysis matters?

Evaluate your slide deck

Next, it’s time to evaluate your slide deck. Watch your video again. As you watch it, consider the following questions. Each question is related to a best practice for slide decks.

Do you:

• Include a good title and subtitle that describe what you’re about to present?
• Include the date of your presentation or the date when your slideshow was last updated?
• Use a font size that lets the audience easily read your slides?
• Showcase what business metrics you used?
• Include effective visuals (like charts and graphs)?

After you complete this checklist, save it for later. If your presentation did not check off every best practice, don’t worry. Later in this course, you will learn more presentation skills so you can rerecord and reevaluate this presentation.

Reflection

In this activity, you recorded and evaluated a presentation on the dashboard you created in an earlier activity. In the text box below, write 2-3 sentences (40-60 words) in response to each of the following questions:

• What did you learn about your presentation delivery? Was anything more or less difficult than you expected?
• What worked well in your slide deck? What could you improve?

Explain: Congratulations on completing this hands-on activity! A good response would include what you learned from your experience of recording and evaluating your presentation.

Presentations are an essential part of being a data analyst. The ability to share your findings is crucial to communicating with stakeholders, co-workers, or any kind of audience. In upcoming lessons and activities, you will learn more about what makes a strong presentation. This will help you recreate this presentation with more skills and context—which will support your effort to develop and refine your presentation skills.

Presentation Native

Review the scenario and identify the element of storytelling by selecting it from the list.

1. The head of marketing shares a large dataset from the company’s supply chain partners and a recent market research report. She asks Libby to complete in-depth analysis. It is setting.
2. With lumber prices up 32%, every penny counts, so the home improvement store must determine how to mitigate inefficiencies in its supply chain. The head of marketing also hopes the data will help identify new opportunities to optimize processes. It is plot
3. The head of marketing asks Libby to analyze the new lumber supply chain data and market research. She will use the data Libby provides to give a presentation to the executive team and board of directors. It is characters.
4. Moving forward, Libby suggests that the company should run a three-day sale on lumber across all U.S. stores within the next two weeks to signal lumber availability. Libby also encourages the team to closely monitor sales and measure the consumer sentiment driving demand to inform other future large- and small-scale marketing campaigns. It is Aha moment.
5. Libby finds that supply issues cut inventory across the entire U.S. market last year, but these problems are almost resolved in the supply chain. Demand is stronger than ever, and the company has a big opportunity to run marketing campaigns to highlight the availability and new lower price of lumber before their competitors. It is big reveal.

Test your knowledge on communicating data stories

Question 1

A new challenge from a competitor, an inefficient process that needs to be improved, or a potential business opportunity could all represent which aspect of data storytelling?

A. Setting

B. Big reveal

C. Aha moment

D. Plot

The correct answer is D. Plot. Explain: A new challenge from a competitor, an inefficient process that needs to be improved, or a potential business opportunity could all be a plot in the data story. The plot reveals the problem and compels the characters to act.

Question 2

Fill in the blank: When designing a presentation, a slideshow tool called _____ can be used to control the color, font types and sizes, formating, and positioning of text and visuals.

A. motives

B. themes

C. patterns

D. schemes

The correct answer is B. themes. Explain: When designing a presentation, themes can be used to control the color, font types and sizes, formating, and positioning of text and visuals.

Question 3

A data analyst includes a visual in their presentation to represent information from a dataset. It’s important that the visual reflect the latest information, so the analyst wants it to update automatically if the original dataset changes. The analyst should copy and paste the visual into the presentation. True or False?

A. True

B. False

It is false statement. Explain: They should link the visual to its original file. Copying and pasting a visual into a presentation means it won’t be updated if the original dataset changes. This means the visual might not reflect the latest information.