Project Presentation: How to Successfully Report on Your Project

1. 1. What is a project presentation?
2. 2. What are project presentations used for?
3. 3. When should you create a project presentation?
4. 4. How do you create a project presentation?
5. 5. How is the structure / outline of a project presentation?
6. 6. Which software is suitable for project presentations?
7. 7. Are there project presentation templates?

Have you never set up a project presentation and don't know where to start? We reveal our best tips for creating a clear and organized project presentation. You'll find out why project presentations are needed at all and how to structure them optimally. We will also provide you with suitable software like e.g., Awork, and tools. 

1. What is a project presentation?

A project presentation is used to summarize a particular project in essentials. It shows how a project is important for the respective structure. Likewise, a project presentation reveals why the costs caused by the project are worthwhile. A good project presentation is therefore always an important part of project management.

Project presentations are supposed to inform about goals, tasks, deadlines, and progress of a project. In addition, project presentations allow external stakeholders to better understand the challenges and tasks of a project team. Especially in large companies and corporations, project management is important. With a high number of different projects, project presentations provide an important overview.

2. What are project presentations used for?

A project presentation helps you to quickly and understandably present the objective of your project. The goal is to convince stakeholders of your project and its relevance through your presentation. To achieve this goal, it is important to understand your target audience. An appealing project presentation, tailored to your audience, can help to achieve your goal. Especially in very technical projects a clear and understandable project presentation is important.

A good project presentation should always be self-explanatory. If someone unfamiliar with the subject is able to understand your presentation and the respective theme, you've made it! So focus on the essentials!

3. When should you create a project presentation?

Since there are different project management methods, there are also different times when you need a project presentation.

Kickoff Project Presentation

Once your project plan is ready, you should create your project kickoff presentation next. It informs about the task before the project start. In the context of a kickoff meeting, you can bring all participants up to speed with a good presentation. The project presentation thus creates transparent communication and presents the concrete roadmap.

Project Update Presentation

If you're running a medium-term project, you'll have larger update dates in between. To report on the progress and challenges of your team, you should edit and supplement your original project presentation. Here it is not about starting from scratch, but reminding in 2-3 sentences what the goals of your project are. If you work in an agile project management environment, it can happen that your original goals and issues change. You should definitely notice these in your project presentation. An update presentation helps you keep the goals of your project in mind and include new ways to achieve them.

Project Results Presentation

Your project is nearing its end. One of the last steps to complete your project is the results presentation. It is about reporting on the success or failure of your project. Have you achieved your goals and how did you reach your goal? Lay down these questions in your results presentation. Together with the tasks and KPIs set in the project plan, you can draw the conclusion of your project.

4. How do you create a project presentation?

Setting up a project presentation is not as difficult as you might think. So that you can successfully implement your project presentation, we show you some tips and tricks that will lead you to an exciting and clear presentation.

What does a project presentation consist of?

You create a project presentation by briefly and clearly summarizing the main components of your project plan. Show what challenges you and your team are facing and how you want to achieve your goal. Make your project plan transparent and set milestones to achieve your goals optimally.

Focus on the uniqueness of your project. The goal should be to arouse the interest of your stakeholders. Stay with your audience and tailor the presentation to them. To present complex facts and issues in a clear and understandable way, you should focus on concrete and illustrated examples. This ensures that your audience understands your topics and remains interested.

How do you make your project presentation appealing?

Project Presentation

Make sure you clearly separate the different parts of your presentation. Use dividers for this. In addition, a uniform structure of your presentation is extremely important. Pay attention to the following points:

Title: The title should have the same size and font on each slide. Set highlights consciously to emphasize important points.

Colors: Try to stick to a color palette. If possible, use your CI. Thus, your company's recognition is ensured. Avoid too bright and garish colors. A harmonious color scheme makes your presentation appear pleasant and professional.

Text: Avoid too much text. Too much text on your slides lowers the attention of your participants. Instead, make sure that you briefly summarize the most important ideas of your presentation. Short sentences, bullet points, quotes, and graphics help for a clear look. Especially roadmaps and timelines can be displayed clearly through timelines.

Example of visualizing a roadmap

Interactivity: Try to make your project presentation content interactive. Short videos or surveys within your presentation help you to keep the attention span of your listeners on top. Ask short and concrete questions. This ensures that your participants can answer your questions without much effort.

5. How is the structure / outline of a project presentation?

Creating a project presentation requires a certain structure. For your stakeholders to follow you correctly, your presentation must be clearly structured.

The project presentation structure can be based on project management phases, planning, execution, controlling, and conclusion. Of course, it is not a must, but it gives you a good structure for your setup.

We recommend the following project presentation structure:

• Agenda
• Explanation of the main problem / status quo
• Definition of the goals to achieve the solution
• Roadmap and deadlines of main tasks
• Progress (at an update meeting)
• Results (at the end of the project)
• Learnings (at the end of the project)
• Outlooks (at the end of the project)

You should clearly define the core problem at the beginning of the presentation. From this definition, you work out the common thread of your project. Set concrete goals for the achievement of your problem. The set tasks help you to keep your goal in view and to achieve it.

Since projects are often limited in time, you should set the different tasks in a roadmap. Set concrete deadlines for your milestones and thereby keep an eye on the time.

In update meetings, you can share your most important progress and possibly make changes. So you are well prepared on the day of your final presentation.

The learnings are to be considered as improvement potential. Even in the case of a successful project, there may be points that you can optimize. Whether strategic, processo, or technical. Learnings always help!

In the last step, the outlooks help you generate new goals and tasks for the future. At the end of a project, new issues often develop. With the outlooks, you get a good overview of future projects and possible solutions.

Make sure to plan enough time for questions at the end. Often, further possibilities, improvements, and approaches develop from this.

6. Which software is suitable for project presentations?

In the following, we will show you a small overview of the tools that we like to use the most. On OMR Reviews you can inform yourself more intensively about the different presentation software. In addition, you will receive exciting and informative reviews about the respective tools. On OMR Reviews you can also learn more about numerous project management tools and free softwares.

PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is the classic among the presentation software. The software is easy to use and offers a wide range of personalization functions. The finished forms and graphics are practical. The suggested designs and layouts of PowerPoint also simplify the creation of your presentation.

Google Presentations

The most well-known and free alternative to PowerPoint is Google Präsentationen. All you need to use Google Presentations is a Google Account. The application is easy and self-explanatory.

Prezi

Prezi offers a high number of modern presentation templates, as well as a free trial period. Most templates support Flash technology and allow for the integration of videos. With Prezi, you will definitely be able to build an interactive and appealing presentation.

Canva

Canva is partially free. To use the full range of functions, you need the paid Pro version. Over 250,000 templates (project presentations, social media posts and stories, etc.) are available to you for free. Canva is somewhat more complex to use than other presentation software. But it provides large and diverse possibilities for creative project presentations.

7. Are there project presentation templates?

Presentation template for a project presentation

You can find templates and examples for your individual project presentation within the mentioned software. When opening a new file, you can select a suitable template for your project from various layouts. You can also find many good examples of a suitable project presentation online. But always think of yourself and your goals!