Transcript

Do you ever feel anxiety about getting a really hard question in front of a really big group of people? Well, of course. There's more tension, there's more perceived judgment when the crowd is bigger and everybody's watching and you've been put on stage as the alleged expert in this area, so you should know the answer, right? I was coaching a client this morning and she was expressing to me that she felt a 10 out of 10. On the anxiety scale during the Q&A for that reason. I said well, well, first of all. Not everyone knows everything about everything, right? There are times where you're going to have great answers and probably 9 out of 10 you will have the answers. You're the product manager and the expert in this area. But that one time that you don't exactly know, you just switch hats, take off the expert hat and put on the facilitator hat. I will go get that for you, I promise. Here's how I'm going to do. So. I had another suggestion for her though, just to reduce that anxiety a little bit. I said think of. Two or three questions. You know they're probably going to ask. That might. You might not have a great answer for, she thought for a second. So. Well, they could ask about this, you know, why isn't this one feature done yet? It's kind of half baked right now and it's not really on the road map yet, but some people find that important For these reasons. OK, good, good. So let's rewind in your presentation back to what you were talking about, the road map. I want you to pause for a second when you're done with that slide. And introduce this technique. It's called. You may be thinking. See now you may be thinking. Why haven't we prioritize that feature on the road map For these reasons and the functionality and etcetera, etcetera. Well, here's where we're at. And here's where we're going. And if enough of you tell me that it's important, I'll make sure it's prioritized on the next release. So you basically asked and answered the question in a preemptive fashion. In a spot where it makes sense, in context where they might be thinking it and you just say you may be thinking. Ask the question, answer yourself, and then you at least won't get surprised later in the open Q&A where somebody launches that and everyone else is like, yeah, what's the answer to that? So that's one technique is called. You may be thinking and I want you to think about where in your presentation. You might have disagreement, debate, something that's controversial, sensitive, anything where the audience is going to. Maybe have some tough questions in their mind and reach in, grab them, pull them out and answer it in a place where you're under control. You've already prepared a semi scripted answer and you will look more confident. Credible and respectful on stage about getting good answers out to this audience because you care that they get what they need. Though you may be thinking, try it out in your next presentation and if you have a question about presenting in a business setting, whether it's on stage at a conference, internally, all hands meetings, no matter the scenario, I would love to feel your tough questions and provide an answer right here on the David Gocho. Thanks for watching.