Public speaking has improved me professionally in so many ways, and I think you should start talking too! Now.
I’m going to tell you about all the benefits of public speaking and I’ll show that you have something to say too - by giving you some ideas for topics. You can already make the first steps towards a talk today, I’ll show you how.
I have smth to say!
And so do you, no matter if you’re….
One of the talks last year - architecture - that was the main concern of our team since we just finished a major refactoring of the app.
Preparing arch talk -> almost done -> covered what the audience might not know
-> Android community -> expectations?
-> list of things that were so obvious for me (JUST FOR ME)
-> problems that everyone faced -> incorporated in the talk
-> feedback - wonderful ------> stop jumping to conclusions!
Talk -> what you’re doing every day
-> problems faced and solutions
Others faced the same problem
Notes for a future self -> you’ll have to solve the same problem again
Lots of arch talks in the Android community - but what I felt that is missing is something that compares these arch patterns
So I did one with that.
Talk about advantages/disadvantages of a solution/API/technology/tool based on your experience
Talk about what you’re passionate about!
Passion is contagious
Micro steps:
Demos, present a new feature/API to team
Organise knowledge sharing events in your company
Get used to speaking, flustering
Next:
Meetups and conferences -> abstracts
Spend a few hours to write the abstract.
If you’re accepted, that’s great.
If you fail? So what? Give yourself permission to fail. Then try again!
There are many reasons why a talk is rejected, and that’s not always the abstract.
Decided on a topic -> ideas in the back of my mind.
U bahn, gym, brushing my teeth.
Write them down
Google Keep ideas -> some talks, some now
Some are seeds for new ideas.
As a dev, I like to do a lot of things apart from work - be active in the community, do open source and do talks.
Time is always a problem.
make a calendar
Pockets of time
Create opportunities to work on a talk
????Secret weapon
Dev - unit test
PO - MVP
Asking for feedback when you only have a list of stuff to talk about in mind. Then improve. Then repeat
Preparing a talk is an agile process
Every talk - rehearsed
If they ask Q, audience will ask the same Q.
Include the answers in my talk or prepare them for the Q&A session
Who is my audience - community
You’re not alone!
Community is opened. WTM & Android -> amazing
Join Slack channels, join meetups
Ask for feedback on abstracts and talk.
Content & delivery
Hard & soft skills
Comfort zone
Talking from experience
GitHub - showcase and playground
Approached at the end of talk with another solution
In return time invested - more knowledge
sprint demos (non it people) -> concise, easy to grasp terms
Structure your ideas
Challenge - who’s in the audience - everyone understands
Focus on content vs focus on the audience understanding the content
Trains consistency (in examples) and creativity
Discussions with peers
Interviews
Day to day life
Now - at a point when I’m invited to talk.
Happy that I took on this challenge of public speaking - managed to find my voice. And you can too.
You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it.
Talk about the things you love, passionate
Challenge yourself more than you think you’re capable of