Step 7: Present your findings
When preparing to present opportunities to your key audience, remember that you are taking them on a short guide through your research effort.
Reading time: 2 minutes
Be sequential in your presentation and help your audience connect the dots. This method keeps the presentation clear and will help to validate the opportunities.
Storytelling
Your presentation should be simple and brief. Make sure that it is also warm, and reflects the human face of the research topic. Enliven and color the story by weaving in photos, quotes, or other human-centered elements. Portraying the research in this way brings it to life in a way that a report or white paper cannot.
Seek consensus
Use your insights as a means to engage your partners in a broader discussion about potential improvements to customer service. Seek consensus, where possible, across the many stakeholders who have an interest in your research project.
Communication
Lead your audience through the discovery work. First, take them briefly through the research process. Next, walk them through the synthesis and the insights gleaned there. Finally, explain how the group filtered all the insights through the project brief to uncover opportunities.
Your project brief — the focus and purpose of the research — is usually part of a greater initiative or administrative venture. Bring this to the attention of your audience as it helps to show that agency leaders are invested in this research topic.
Present your materials in a polished yet warm manner. Practice your pitch in advance, refine your content, and use quality presentation materials, such as an agency-approved PowerPoint template.
Suggested format
Communicate your findings clearly and concisely by listing the insights you found and the opportunities that came from them.
By deciding upon a standard communication method at the outset of your project, you help ensure that members of the research team, and your audience, are speaking the same language and on the same page.
