How To Give Short Talks

Hi Reader, last week, I came across a LinkedIn post claiming that you cannot present your research project in just 5 minutes.

While a lot of people agreed, and I wondered… Why not?

Summarizing your work is the key to giving short presentations.

To my mind, the key to mastering this skill lies in understanding that you need to find your through line.

So, let’s figure out how you can master short elevator pitches.

Why Does It Matter?

During more formal science slams or retreats, you will often be asked to give a short outline of your work.

Moreover, the most common question at any poster session is: “Tell us about your work.”

And again, the judges typically have no more than 3–5 minutes per poster.

Typical advice is to break down your answer into separate pieces:

• What is the problem or scientific question I am working on?
• What has been done?
• What do my results mean / why are they important?
• What is missing?

This is a good idea, since most (senior) people expect you to follow the typical paper structure.

But how do you fit your entire project into that?

The Key to Summarization

In my opinion, brevity comes from knowing the key point you want to communicate.

If you want to master this, read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by brothers Chip and Dan Heath — this book is pure gold.

Then, practice. With experience, you’ll develop an intuition for what to say and what to leave out.

However, I can imagine you would appreciate some advice you can put into action right away. So, let me give you some easily applicable insights:

It’s All About Relevance

You start by identifying what is relevant to deliver your core message.

The issue is that many are anxious about leaving something out and their talk ends up sounding more like reading a list than giving a presentation.

Since you have little time but a lot you could say, you must find the core.

Just like when designing your poster, you need to decide what matters most.

• If your goal is to get cited, what data would people need to see?
• If you’re doing broad science communication, what results are most exciting and engaging?
• If you want to draw attention, what is most surprising?

You can then refine your answer by asking yourself what you want your audience to remember.

Going Step by Step

Once you have this, you can start fleshing out the sections (Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, etc.) with concrete points.

For each, you can trim further by considering:

• What your listeners already know (and can be skipped or summarized quickly), and
• what is important versus what is merely interesting.

Start by writing out everything you think is important - then edit it again and again (that’s how I find the emotional strength to delete so many things I want to say).

Guide Your Listener

From the very first word, you must actively guide your audience’s attention.

This is important because it ensures that they absorb all the key points, preventing them from getting lost - especially since what you say will be very information-dense.

My tip: start with something they already know, and then quickly give them a curiosity hook - a glimpse of your conclusion.

Then, if you have a poster or data on a slide, that means showing them where to look and what to notice.

Summarizing This Lesson

You must decide what is relevant (i.e., essential, important) for your specific target audience; at every level:

• The overall message of your presentation
• Each section (Background, Methods, Results...)
• Each figure or visual

And once you’ve practiced this, you’ll start doing it automatically with each sentence too.

Eventually, you’ll be able to stay concise while still leading your audience’s attention effectively - because attention follows relevance.

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