Save many hours a week on your Project updates
Before my holidays I gave the same project update presentation to 3 different groups of people. The presentations were very straightforward Powerpoint and talk sessions, each one lasting 20 minutes, and very few questions were asked.
As I am always having to fit more into my working day I started to think about how I could save time in delivering the project updates, which are for information only and don’t actually need my presence.
After a bit of research I came across Flash Demo Builder, an application which can import Powerpoint presentations and to which you can add your voiceover commentary. Once your presentation is complete it can be emailed to your audience or run from your intranet.
Easy to Use
The starting point can be Powerpoint, a list of images or (and this is something I am still experimenting with) a screen capture. The screen capture looks quite interesting as I am working on a software project and this will enable me to capture what I see on my screen as I use the software (complete with moving cursor and auto-generated callout boxes to give instructions). It should be a very useful way of of demonstrating the functionality of our new system.
There are numerous ways of drawing attention to particular pieces of information in your presentation and adding interactivity to give detailed information to those who need it.
It is very easy to pick up and my prototype 6 slide presentation took about 30 minutes. When doing voiceovers you record one slide at a time - the advantage is that you dont need to be word perfect for the whole presentation. My presentations are viewed from our intranet, although I have also emailed standalone versions to people.
The Results
My Interactive Project Updates (IPU’s) have been running for 2 weeks and have been well received by the business - the advantage is that the stakeholders can view them when it is convenient for them - saving them the time to go to meetings. I have included an email link at the end of the presentation so they can contact me with any questions - the advantage is that I only need to answer questions by exception.
I am investigating other uses such as ‘lessons learned’ presentations to help future projects, and also online training sessions as part of the induction process for new members of the project team.
If you want to squeeze a few more hours out of your working week have a look at Flash Demo Builder - you can either buy it or try it out for 30 days (Click HOME, DOWNLOAD).
It is saving me around 6 hours a week so well worth the investment!
Graham Perry