4 basic Tips to prepare a rich IR meeting

Last week I drove my second IR in Southworks. From these personal experiences, and the feedback I recollected from npaez, I gathered some useful tips for beginners or anyone who’s wondering if his presentation is focused on the right spot.

Share the wealth

Sharing the actual status of Iteration Goals are one of the most important parts of a review.
Allows your customer to know the status of the work performed so he can take decisions based on it. Sometimes you have a goal that doesn’t lead to a “successful” path (e.g. adding a new complex feature to an existing app and realize that it isn’t
fully supported by the technology). In those cases you should expose all you’ve documented and the steps realized in order to explain why you cannot be able to achieve the goal.

Always have a plan B

Unexpected things happen, we all know that. That’s the first thing you’ve to be ready to take: risks are high and, if you are not prepared, the slightest modification of what you’ve planned can lead to a sequence of mistakes that might (and probably will) end up in a sloppy presentation. Test everything before is a good practice, but prepare a backup plan is better.

Images beats Texts

Consider creating a slide that explains the big picture/scope of the application. It’s always useful to have a visual aid to help understand these kind of matters. A lot of text means a lot to read, and that means focusing the attention in what is written instead of what you’re actually saying. Images are better than text, always.

Respect time, respect the customer

When you are leading a meeting you should leave a minute go by and then ask if you
can start. You could be wasting valuable time waiting for someone who couldn’t even be joining in. Also, try to make sure the meeting last the time you’ve requested. Customers have a busy schedule, so the meeting must be as short as possible. Otherwise, they will tell you they have other appointments and leave the meeting in the middle of your demo.

Tags: induction, IR