Whatever the impact of AI on our jobs and lives, there will always be a need to communicate effectively — unless bots take over that part too 🙂 I recently came across a nice little technique to help us communicate effectively. It’s called “PREP” and has been designed to help structure a speech, whether it’s a planned presentation or an impromptu one.
PREP stands for Point, Reason, Example, Point:
Point — Establish the topic and start your communication with your main point about the topic in question. For example, “Apple’s Vision Pro is much more sophisticated than the Oculus.” By focusing on a single core idea, it will be much easier for your audience to follow your point.
Reasons — Once you’ve made your point, you need to back it up with evidence. You can support your point through data points, user research or statistics. For example, “Apple’s Vision Pro offers a truly immersive experience” or “Apple’s Vision Pro hardware is much less clunky compared to the Oculus.”
Example — You then provide examples of evidence to support your main point and the reasons for making your point. “You can use Cinema Environment on Apple Vision Pro to watch a film just like you’re in your own personal movie theatre.”
Point — Finally, you wrap up your speech by repeating your main point so that it sticks with your audience. Key here is to include a call to action, mentioning what you want to achieve with your communication. For example, “Apple’s Vision Pro is much more sophisticated than the Oculus and you should try it out to experience the different experience that it offers.”
Main learning point: PREP is a simple but powerful technique that helps us making a clear point and outlining our rationale.
Related links for further learning:
- https://www.beverlylandais.co.uk/blog/tips-to-prep-for-effective-communication#
- https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2021/june/how-to-build-a-speech
- https://om.co/2023/06/05/my-big-takeaways-from-wwdc-2023/
- https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
- https://marcabraham.com/2020/11/24/storytelling-is-what-we-do/
- https://marcabraham.com/2016/11/02/my-product-management-toolkit-15-storytelling/
