If you ask anyone what they think of PowerPoint presentations, they’ll probably give you a strong reaction. But whether you love, hate, or want to ban them from your world forever, the truth is that slide decks are (and will continue to be) part of your professional life for the foreseeable future.
But don’t despair. PowerPoint is just a tool. Whether a presentation is bad or good depends on the person creating the slides. Bad presentations are a user problem, not a software problem, and the worst of them tend to make sense to the presenter, just not to the audience.
Creating a presentation that will succeed and resonate with your audience requires a dose of emotional intelligence–long before you actually start building your slides. Here are a few easy, low-tech steps to help you do that.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience Through Empathy
Before you even open PowerPoint, try to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and think about what matters to them. Go for a walk, doodle, do whatever works for you. Just don’t open the software yet.
Empathy is a key part of emotional intelligence, and without it, you can wind up delivering a message that does your listeners no good–and might even be painful to sit through. So your starting point should be taking a moment to anticipate and understand your specific audience. Ask yourself, what might be their fears and aspirations, thoughts and opinions? What do they know and not know? What are their pains? What makes them happy?
Related: Ask These 4 Empathetic Questions When You’re Trying To Listen
Answering these questions will help you build an audience profile consisting of the key decision-makers you’re trying to reach. If the audience is people you know, create an Empathy Map to identify their needs. If you’re dealing with an audience you don’t know, make guesses and create personas for key segments.