Saturday, October 30, 2010

Presentation Review: Pierluigi Pugliese

Pierluigi Pugliese, an Agile coach at Connexxo, presented Soft Skill Essentials for Software Craftsmen at WebExpo 2010. His was the last presentation that I reviewed for this conference and, like the first (David Hussman), I was thrilled to find such a high-quality performance. What stands out in my mind the most about his talk is that he turned his presentation into a learning experience with the audience absolutely involved from beginning to end. For only the second time since I have been reviewing presentations, I am giving a complete 'outstanding' rating!

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - 1

Pierluigi's main message was clear from the start. His aim was to give us concrete methods for communicating better with people because soft skills are just as important as technical knowledge when dealing with a community of software professionals. He introduced his message by asking us questions, 'How do we deal with people? How do we create a more productive team? 'What about developing individual skills in addition to team development?' This message served as the basis for all his content and the activities he included. Because of this clarity, everything made sense.

Content - 1

Pierluigi didn't just give us facts and expect us to take them at face value. With every content point he asked us to try it out ourselves and come to our own conclusions. His method for this involved introducing a concept, having us practice it in pairs and then asking the whole group what we learned. He challenged us to think and act - this is not done often enough in presentations! He wasn't just feeding us his knowledge. We were encouraged to experience it and use that experience to see how these methods really work. He used a wide variety of examples, games, anecdotes and audience interaction to reinforce his message.

Attention - 1

I found it impossible NOT to pay attention to Pierluigi throughout his presentation. He opened his talk with a question, 'What do you expect to learn today?' It's not an unusual question to start a presentation, but this was different because he really expected us to answer him and he waited until he got some concrete answers to it. I think people were a little shocked because they didn't expect to get involved right from the beginning, but it set the tone for the whole presentation. We knew then that we would be an integral part of his talk - that's exactly how an audience should feel! The rest of his presentation involved some kind of audience interaction at all times. He never let us go!

Slides - 1

Pierluigi's slides were bright, colorful and clear. And when there was text, it was sparse and big. Absolutely how visual tools should be used!

Presence - 1

Pierluigi's presentation style can best be described as BIG. He used the whole room and commanded attention from everyone there. He got down close to people and gave thoughtful responses to questions. It was clear that he really wanted to make us understand - he didn't just want to do his presentation and hope that we got it. The feeling that I got from him is that he is the best kind of educator - someone truly interested in getting his message through and having his audience remember and use what they've learned after they leave his talk. I think that a few audience members were a bit unnerved by his style. They weren't used to all of this interaction and attention (after one of the first pair exercises, one member of the audience even said he felt 'uncomfortable'). But, Pierluigi managed to explain the method and why we were doing it (and to be sensitive to this man's feelings at the same time) so that even this audience member admitted that he was 'getting it and feeling good' after the next exercise.

Thank you, Pierluigi, for allowing me to review such an outstanding presentation. I managed to learn a lot about your topic and to witness a fabulous performance at the same time. Bravo!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

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