Arrache-moi la tête

Last week, I gave a 4-hour course in a business school, to product management executives.

Official topics were product portfolio and culture playbook. Actual topics were simplicity and radicality, with a twist a playfulness.

What did I learn?

- It was nice.

- It was exhausting.

- Half of my words were a response to someone asking a question, either to clarify something I just said, or to provide a particular situation for me to comment on

- I did the right amount of rehearsal, but also the right type of it. Coming in, I thought I should have rehearsed more. But the constant flow of questions forced me to adjust a lot. Had I tried to learn by heart the exact words I needed to spit out, I fear I would have been less agile.

- Having a speaker screen down your feet is useful to avoid turning your back to your audience, but I wasn’t used to it, so I sometimes pointed to it, instead of pointing to the main screen.

- During the break, I asked the programme professor for feedback on my presentation skill. He provided precise comments about my voice (sometimes not loud enough), my position in the room (too far for center stage for the first 5 minutes) and my mobility (too static).