Harvard ManageMentor PRESENTATION SKILLS TOOLS

Group Learning Project Plan: Evaluating a Presentation

Use this learning project plan to define your project, schedule project activities, identify necessary resources,
track your progress, and reflect on your project outcomes. Consider adding more or different reflection questions
in Part III to fit your project.
Part I. Define your group learning project
Project description:
Over the course of 30 days, project team members will: (1) identify an upcoming presentation to evaluate; (2) agree to a list
of criteria to use in evaluating the presentation; (3) view the presentation and conduct individual evaluations of it; and (4)
meet as a project team to assess the presentation, comparing their individual evaluations of the presentation and reflecting
on key lessons learned.
Project goal(s):
Help team members learn how they can improve their presentation skills and approach, based on lessons learned from their
evaluation of a live presentation.
Project participants:

Part II. Plan and track your progress

Project steps

Resources needed

1. Along with members of your project team,

select an upcoming presentation to attend and

evaluate. Consider evaluating an internal
presentation or one given by someone outside
of your team and organization, for example a
presentation given at a local professional
association or community organization.
Consider inviting your manager to attend the
presentation you selected.
2. Meet as a team to agree on a set of criteria

you will use to evaluate the upcoming

presentation. Refer to Steps for Creating a
Presentation and Tips for Presenting
Effectively for ideas on potential evaluation
criteria. Develop additional criteria based on
team input. Consider including:

o Key purpose/objectives: What were

they and how well did the speaker
meet them?
o Relationship to audience: To what
extent did the speaker appear to

anticipate and respond to the

audiences needs and expectations? To
what extent did the speaker bring
about a desired response from the
audience?
o Visuals: How effective was the
speakers use of graphs, tables, and
other visuals? What might they have
done differently?
o Style: How well did the speaker

Information on
upcoming presentations

Target completion
date
Day 5

Steps for Creating a

Day 10
Presentation (found in
the Harvard
ManageMentor topic
Presentation Skills).
Tips for Presenting
Effectively (found in the
Presentation Skills
topic).
A volunteer to create and
distribute lists of
evaluation criteria

2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

Check when
completed

project and vary his or her voice? Did

the speaker project confident body
language? How well did he or she
make use of appropriate humor?
Make copies of evaluation criteria available for
each team member.
3.

Attend the presentation, and observe carefully.

Following the presentation, independently
assess the presentation using the evaluation
criteria, before discussing the presentation
with other team members.

4.

Meet with your project team and manager to

assess the presentation as a group. Compare
your respective individual evaluations with
one another. Discuss any lessons you will
apply from observing and assessing the
particular presentation you attended. Reserve
the last part of the meeting to debrief the
project, using the reflection questions in Part
III of this tool.

Day 20

Reflection questions in Day 30

Part III of this tool.

Part III. Reflect on your project outcomes

At the conclusion of your group learning project, use the following questions to reflect on your project
experience and outcomes.
What specific aspects of the presentation you observed, if any, would you like to emulate, or avoid, in the future?

What did you learn about giving effective presentations from participating in this group project?

What were your biggest surprises during, or at the conclusion of, your project?

2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

How might you adapt the evaluation process used in this project to help you assess the effectiveness of your own
presentations?

Based on your insights gained from the project experience, what will you or your group do differently going forward?

What suggestions or tips would you give to future participants doing the same or similar project?

Part IV. Share your results

Share your findings with others outside of your group: At the conclusion of the project, consider sharing your
lessons learned and project results with others in your organization. For example, you could hold an
information-sharing session over lunch or post suggestions on a discussion forum.

2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.