Creating an engaging and meaningful presentation is an art that requires attention to detail in various aspects: purpose, audience, content, timing, method, and location. Missing out on any element can ruin your efforts and make your presentation ineffectual.
In this context, two methods, i.e., 4W1H and 5W1H, can guide you in creating a flawless presentation that resonates with your audience and lets you achieve the purpose.
Let’s learn in detail how to use these two frameworks in structuring a great presentation.
4W1H: What is it?
The 4W1H stands for Who, What, When, Where, and How. This framework helps presenters gather, organize, and present relevant information.
- Who (Audience)
‘Who’ draws the presenter’s attention toward audience analysis and emphasizes the importance of understanding the audience’s pain points, interests, knowledge level, and demographics. It lays a strong foundation for determining the content and delivery of your presentation.
- What (Content)
‘What’ focuses on the topic and key message of your presentation. It helps clarify the purpose of your talk, weave a story, structure your slides, and bridge the gap between what the audience knows and should know.
- When (Timing)
‘When’ denotes the time frame. Precisely, the schedule and timing of your presentation. It helps determine the presentation’s length based on the engagement levels of the audience.
- Where (Location)
‘Where’ indicates the location. It assists you in deciding the right venue based on the number of the audience, presentation content, and technical requirements.
- How (Method)
‘How’ highlights methods, tools, and techniques needed to deliver the presentation effectively. It also assists you in planning visual aids for making your message more comprehensible to the audience.
5W1H: What is it?
5W1H is an extension of the 4W1H framework. It adds an additional variable, ‘Why,’ to the 4W1H framework for making presentations more purposeful and insightful.
‘Why’ points out the significance of your presentation, providing a strong reason to the audience for attending your presentation.
Integrating 4W1H and 5W1H into Presentation Planning
1. Audience Analysis
Knowing and learning about the audience’s pain points, interests, occupation, income, age, etc., is crucial to creating a presentation that relates to them. Here, the 4W1H and 5W1H frameworks can help you gain valuable insights.
Who – Who is your target audience?
Why – Why is it important to understand the audience?
Where – Where is the audience located?
What – What are their beliefs, challenges, preferences, and expectations?
How – How will you make your content resonate with them?
2. Selection of the Topic
The ‘topic’ is one of the factors on which the success of your presentation hinges. Select a topic that interests you as well as your audience. A few elements of the 5W1H framework can help you finalize the topic.
What – What topic aligns with the interests of the audience and your expertise?
Why – Why should you choose an engaging and relevant topic?
How – How will the selected topic align with the audience?
3. Defining the Presentation Goal
The 4W1H and 5W1H frameworks help define the presentation goal by directing your focus on the following questions-
Why – Why is it important to specify the presentation’s objective?
What – What is the main message you want to convey to the audience?
Who – Who will benefit the most from your presentation?
Where – Where should you incorporate the objective to ensure its perfect alignment with the presentation?
When – When will you evaluate whether your goal is rightly understood by the audience?
How – How does the objective meet your goals and the audience’s expectations?
4. Information Gathering
These two frameworks aid you in gathering relevant information by uncovering the following aspects-
What – What statistics, examples, data, or research findings back your core message?
Who – Who is the provider of the information? A researcher, surveyor, market analyst agency, etc.?
Where – Where is the source of information?
When – When was the information/data last updated or published?
How – How will you determine the credibility of the information?
Integrating 4W1H and 5W1H into Presentation Planning
4W1H and 5W1H frameworks help effectively organize and structure different parts of your presentation, i.e., the introduction, body, and conclusion.
Introduction
In the introduction part of your presentation, address the ‘What’ aspect, emphasizing the objective.
For example, if you want to deliver a presentation to pitch a new tech product created by your company, you must include information about the goals and objectives of your firm behind creating the product. It could be to achieve technological partnership, reduce cost and increase agility, process improvement, etc.
Body
In this section, elaborate the Who, Why, When, Where, and How aspects of the 5W1H framework.
- Why – Highlight the supporting points to back your core message. Include information about the need for the product, competitive analysis, and market trends. Use data-driven charts and infographics to enhance data visualization.
- Who – Highlight the persons responsible for specific tasks, presenting each personnel’s roles and responsibilities. Use ready-to-use roles and responsibilities presentation templates to present information in an understandable manner and keep all the team members aligned.
- Where – Specify the target market and future expansion plan in other geographical locations. Incorporate map illustrations to help the audience comprehend your plan.
- When – Show the implementation timeline, accentuating milestones for launch, system upgrades, and operational changes. Timeline diagrams and milestone illustrations can make your content stand out.
- How – Present tools, technologies, methods, workflows, and methodologies with the help of process diagrams, stage diagrams, and other relevant visuals.
Conclusion
Conclude your presentation by highlighting the key points covered under each ‘W’ and ‘H’ of the 5W1H framework.
How 4W1H and 5W1H Methods Help Avoid Mistakes in Presentation
a). Reduce Vagueness (Why)
The audience finds it difficult to relate to vague and irrelevant information. Without a clear direction, your presentation won’t be able to engage the audience and will flop.
The ‘Why’ aspect of the 5W1H framework helps keep your presentation purposeful and the audience invested. It gives the audience a reason to listen and actively participate in your talk.
b). Prevent Information Overload (What, How)
Overloading your slides with too much information increases the chances of getting your key message lost. The audience also struggles to understand which part they are supposed to focus on.
Presentations created by considering ‘What’ (what should be included in slides?) and ‘How’ (how the information included in slides will create value for the audience?) are concise, relevant, and impactful. These aspects help you highlight key points clearly without overwhelming the audience.
c). Focus on Audience Interests (Who)
As a presenter, you want to present all that you know. However, not all information is equally important to all audience members. So, it is essential to understand what they expect from their presentation.
The ‘Who’ element of the 4W1H and 5W1H frameworks lets you focus on the audience’s interests, needs, and preferences. By preparing your presentation from the audience’s perspective, you ensure it is truly valuable and worth their time.
d). Strengthen Reliability (Who, What)
Taking references from unreliable sources puts a question mark on the credibility of your information. It compels the audience to think twice before trusting you as a presenter.
By taking into account the contributor (Who) and the source (What) of the information, you can ensure that it is authentic and unbiased.
The Bottom Line
The 4W1H and 5W1H frameworks provide a solid foundation to structure a well-rounded presentation. Each element of these frameworks guides you in your presentation planning efforts, ensuring your information’s relevance, clarity, completeness, and authenticity.
So, acknowledge the power of these frameworks and use them to the fullest while creating your next presentation.
