Follow these three steps to clearly explain your ConOps in a way that will help your presentation succeed where others fail.
Step 1: SimplifyWhy? Because your audience is not an expert with your information. Explain it in a way that the reader understands. Your presentation wasn’t created for you and your team to read; it’s intended for your audience.
Do not include content, acronyms and abbreviations that may confuse your audience. Keep it simple and clearly identify any benefits, outcomes and discriminators (things that set your solution apart from your competition).
Step 2: Use a compelling graphicWhy? Because good graphics are easier to understand and remember than text alone. Additionally, graphics uncover omitted parts. For example, missing a step in a process is obvious when shown in a process diagram but might be overlooked on a bulleted list.
2. Graphic types that literally show the system in use.
3. Graphic types that show process.Show how your system combines data, structures workflow, allows for continual improvement, manages risk or offers a unique process flow using these graphic types. The following graphics illustrate the process through which the final outcome is reached:
Add other graphic types with your ConOps graphic as needed. For example, consider gauge graphics to show quantitative data (below):
The next time you need to share complex information, consider a ConOps approach and use these three steps to more clearly explain your solution.
About the Author:
Mike Parkinson is an internationally-recognized visual communication expert, trainer and multi-published author. Visit Billion Dollar Graphics (http://www.BillionDollarGraphics.com) and Get My Graphic (http://www.GetMyGraphic.com) for helpful presentation tools. Mike also is a partner at 24 Hour Company (http://www.24hrco.com), a premier proposal and presentation graphics firm.