February 2025
Service Design
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“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around” - Steve Jobs, 1997
A later book, ‘Talk Like TED,’ by the same author, Carmine Gallo, was my primary reading for my public-speaking class in college. It was a book that upon reading seemed familiar but in reality was far from it- my presentation skills needed polishing. At the time, I didn’t realize that I had already read one of his earlier books: “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.”
Carmine Gallo’s books definitely have some overlap in principle but differ in terms of intended audience. This book is targeted more for those giving presentations to customers or the media - not to those who share some of the same background knowledge.
Regardless, I found it to be helpful and will carry some of his advice into future presentations and storytelling!
Read more for my thoughts on the book!
Storytelling is a profoundly emotive skill and it’s also a vital skill to communicate ideas to audiences that don’t share the same expertise as you. It’s also a skill I’m seeking to continuously refine and one that has benefited by rereading ‘The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.’
There is a qualitative element to storytelling that often gets neglected ‘in the real world.’ Gallo states it like this:
“Most business communicators lose sight of the fact that their audiences want to be informed and entertained.”
Similar to pieces of drama, literature or other media, a great story and therefore a great presentation is most effective in 3 acts:
1. ACT I: Create the Story
2. ACT II: Deliver the Experience
3. ACT III: Refine and Rehearse
Many public-speaking tips are universal - especially with the easier dissemination of information via the internet. However, there were a few relayed in this book that are not as well known or still overlooked:
1. Technical/UX Writing: Gallo describes this as “Twitter-Like Headlines” but what he means is this: make every single word concise, specific and include personal benefits if possible. Avoid jargon.
2. Roadmaps: outline what you’re going to talk about; it keeps things organized and lets audience members prepare for the information.
“Providing a roadmap of three parts creates an outline for a short interview, a much longer interview or an entire presentation. Your listeners’ brains are working overtime. They’re consuming words, images, and sensory experiences. not to mention conducting their own internal dialogues. Make it easy for them to follow your narrative.”
3. “Dress up your numbers”: make statistics and specifications relatable for the audience. It’s difficult to fathom numbers without a certain amount of field-based knowledge.
“Rarely do numbers resonate with people until those numbers are placed in a context that people can understand, and the best way to help them understand is to make those numbers relevant to something with which they are already familiar.”
4. Zen: Simplify. Take away words/images until you can’t take anything else away without removing crucial knowledge. (This is case-specific in my opinion.)
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Steve Jobs quoting Leonardo Da Vinci
5. Share the Stage: use demos, invite other people, or have physical props to enhance the presentation. The brain is naturally lazy so don’t make it work too hard at just staying focused.
Favorite Steve Jobs Quotes:
“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” - Steve Jobs
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.” - Steve Jobs
I enjoyed re-reading Gallo’s book; most of this information feels far more applicable to my current life than it did to an 18-year old college student. The outline for the book serves as a great guide to master giving presentations and doing so do a wide array of audience members.
My one critique is this: this book feels pretty focused on those who make presentations to external stakeholders: investors, customers, etc. This is a great resource for product owners, CEOs, marketing experts but I found some of the principles less applicable to conveying design decisions or even research.
Regardless, I enjoyed the book and see its value when applied to design: presentations ARE design. Gallo talks about making headlines “Twitter-Friendly,” but what he’s really saying is: implement UX Writing best practices.
I would recommend this book - especially to those in design looking to take the managerial route rather than the individual contributor route!
7/10.
