Week 4: Developing presentations and slideshows

1. A data analyst gives a presentation about predicting upcoming investment opportunities. How does establishing a hypothesis help the audience understand their predictions?

  • It describes the data thoroughly
  • It summarizes the findings succinctly
  • It visualizes the data clearly and concisely
  • It provides context about the presentation’s purpose

2. According to the McCandless Method, what is the most effective way to first present a data visualization to an audience?

  • Answer obvious questions before they’re asked
  • State the insight of the graphic
  • Tell the audience why the graphic matters
  • Introduce the graphic by name

3. You are preparing for your first presentation at a new job. Which strategies can help you combat nervousness about presentations? Select all that apply.

  • Improvise your material to speak naturally
  • Practice and prepare your material
  • Do breathing exercises to calm your body down
  • Channel your nervousness into excitement about your topic

4. You are preparing for a presentation and want to make sure your nerves don’t distract you from your presentation. Which practices can help you stay focused on an audience? Select all that apply.

  • Speak as quickly and briefly as possible
  • Use short sentences
  • Keep the pitch of your voice level
  • Be mindful of nervous habits

5. You are running a colleague test with your coworkers. One coworker points out that she doesn’t understand one of your graphs. What can you do to prepare for presenting to your stakeholders? Select all that apply.

  • Redesign the graph
  • Elaborate on the data from the graph
  • Move the graph to a later slide
  • Remove the graph

6. Your stakeholders express concern that the results of your analysis are very different from the predictions they made last year. Which kind of objection are they making?

  • Data
  • Analysis
  • Presentation skills
  • Findings

7. A stakeholder objects to the steps of your analysis. What are some appropriate ways to respond to this objection? Select all that apply.

  • Explain why you think any discrepancies exist
  • Take steps to investigate your analysis question further
  • Communicate the assumptions you made in your analysis
  • Defend the results of your analysis

8. You notice that your audience is not as engaged as you’d like during your Q&A. Which of the following are ways to get them more involved?

  • Keep your pitch level
  • Repeat your key findings
  • Wait longer for the audience to ask questions
  • Ask them for insights

9. A purchaser at your company wants to optimize the price they will pay to order office supplies for the coming year. Which of the following is a good initial hypothesis to test in order to help the purchaser optimize their spending? Select all that apply.

  • Office supply prices increase seasonally.
  • Office supply prices remain the same throughout the year.
  • The budget for office supplies should increase.
  • The budget for office supplies can remain the same.

10. According to the McCandless method, when should you present the data that supports insights?

  • After stating insights
  • Before stating insights
  • At the end of the presentation
  • At the beginning of the presentation
  • While stating insights

11. An analyst introduces a graph to their audience to explain an analysis they performed. Which strategy would allow the audience to absorb the data visualizations? Select all that apply.

  • Practicing breathing exercises
  • Improving body language
  • Using the five second rule
  • Starting with broad ideas

12. During a presentation, one of your stakeholders expresses concern that you did not control for differences in the data. Which kind of objection are they making?

  • Findings
  • Presentation Skills
  • Data
  • Analysis

13. During a meeting, a colleague on your team points out a flaw in your analysis that you had not noticed before. What steps should you take to respond to their objection? Select all that apply.

  • Hide evidence that you were incorrect
  • Follow up with your colleague
  • Investigate the issue
  • Acknowledge that their objection is valid

14. You are presenting to a large audience and want to keep everyone engaged during your Q&A. What can you do to ensure your audience doesn’t grow disinterested despite its size?

  • Ask your audience for insights
  • Wait longer for the audience to ask questions
  • Repeat your key findings
  • Keep your pitch level

15. Which of the following statements is true about using a hypothesis in your data presentation?

  • Include the hypothesis in a summary at the end of your presentation
  • Choose a hypothesis your audience will like
  • Include a new hypothesis before every data visualization
  • Present the hypothesis early in your presentation

16. Why is it important to state the insights from your graphic when using the McCandless method?

  • To get everyone on the same page before you give supporting details
  • To make sure your audience understands why the data matters
  • To ensure that you establish credibility as a serious data analyst
  • To add a strong finish to your presentation

17. A researcher is presenting the data for their study. What can they do to ensure their presentation is impactful?

  • Ensure their delivery is as well executed as their analysis
  • Suppress their excitement to remain passive and neutral
  • Start with really narrow ideas and works towards broad ideas
  • Focus on the data instead of focusing on presentation skills

18. You run a colleague test on your presentation before getting in front of an audience. Your coworker asks a question about a section of your analysis, but addressing their concern would mean adding information you didn’t plan to include. How should you proceed with building your presentation? Select all that apply.

  • Leave the presentation as-is
  • Keep the concern in mind and anticipate that stakeholders may ask the same question
  • Remove the section of the analysis that prompted the question
  • Expand your presentation by including the information

19. One of your stakeholders tried to reproduce the work you presented by using a copy of your scripts and was unable to get the same results. Which kind of objection are they making?

  • Data
  • Analysis
  • Presentation skills
  • Findings

20. One of your co-workers is giving a presentation on the results of an analysis the two of you have been working on. Someone in the audience points out that the data system you used has frequent errors. How should you deal with this comment?

  • Assume you were given valid data
  • Tell them they should have looked at the appendix
  • Explain how you cleaned and formatted the data
  • Ignore the question and move on

21. Why should you repeat questions that you receive during your presentation? Select all that apply.

  • It helps you take up more time.
  • It gives you a moment to think.
  • It allows you to ensure you understood the question.
  • It ensures you focus on the person asking the question instead of the whole audience.

22. You give a presentation on your latest data analysis and receive feedback from the audience that they did not understand the context of the analysis. What might have caused this problem? Select all that apply.

  • Your hypothesis was stated early.
  • Your hypothesis was not included.
  • Your hypothesis was a disprovable theory.
  • Your hypothesis was stated too late.

23. According to the McCandless Method, what is the most effective way to finish presenting data to an audience?

  • Call out data to support your insights
  • Tell your audience why it matters
  • Answer any obvious questions before they’re asked
  • State the insight of your graphic

24. You are putting together a list of your peers to run colleague tests with. What are some qualities of good peers to target?

  • They are very different from your audience
  • They are familiar with your previous work
  • They worked on the analysis with you
  • They have no prior knowledge of your work

25. Your stakeholders are concerned that you inappropriately removed data during the initial phases of your project. Which kind of objection are they making?

  • Findings
  • Data
  • Presentation Skills
  • Analysis

26. You are presenting to your stakeholders an analysis of your company’s latest quarter earnings. Your stakeholders express concern that your projections for next quarter are lower than expected. What are appropriate ways to respond to these objections? Select all that apply.

  • Explain why you think the discrepancies exist
  • Repeat the steps you took
  • Take steps to investigate your analysis question further
  • Communicate the assumptions you made in your approach

27. After a presentation one of your peers points out that you were unable to answer audience questions very well. Which step can you take to improve your question answering?

  • Answer questions immediately with highly detailed answers
  • Start thinking of answers during the question
  • Focus your responses on people that ask questions instead of the whole audience
  • Repeat questions to ensure you understood

28. What is the final step, or the “so what?” phase, to the McCandless Method? This is the point where you present the possible business impact of the solution and clear actions stakeholders can take?

  • State the insight of the graphic
  • Tell your audience why it matters
  • Call out data to support that insight
  • Answer obvious questions before they’re asked

29. During a presentation, you stop and wait for five seconds after displaying a new graphic. According to the McCandless method, what should you do after that delay?

  • Ask if there are any questions
  • Wait another five seconds
  • Move on to the next topic
  • Return to the previous content

30. You are giving a presentation to the leadership of a local community organization. How can you effectively communicate your findings to them?

  • Focus on what you found interesting
  • Focus on what the audience needs to hear
  • Focus on specific technical details of your analysis
  • Focus on speaking without any pauses

31. You are on a team of analysts presenting to your stakeholders. Your teammate responds to an objection about your steps of analysis by repeating the steps and then getting defensive when the stakeholders don’t seem to understand. What could they have done to respond to the objection more appropriately? Select all that apply.

  • Promise to investigate your analysis question further
  • Remind the stakeholders of your successes
  • Acknowledge that the objection is valid
  • Describe the approach you took in your analysis

32. You are getting ready to give the biggest presentation of your career. Which of the following methods might help you prepare to give the presentation? Select all that apply.

  • Write a script and repeat it in your head
  • Hold a dress rehearsal at the presentation location
  • Avoid thinking about the presentation
  • Visualize giving the presentation

33. You are presenting to your stakeholders and want to convey confidence. How should your body language reflect your composure? Select all that apply.

  • Stand up straight and be still
  • Gesture enthusiastically to illustrate each point
  • Make eye contact with audience members
  • Pace as you speak to the audience

34. As part of an internship you are giving a presentation of your work to the rest of the department. Why might you want to perform a colleague test? Select all that apply.

  • It helps you come up with highly detailed answers.
  • It can help find places your audience might get confused.
  • It can help you discover jargon to include.
  • It can help you discover jargon to include.

35. You are introducing a data visualization during your presentation and are concerned that it may overwhelm your audience. How can you allow the audience to process the information when you first introduce the visualization?

  • Wait five seconds
  • Thoroughly explain the context
  • Describe each graph quickly
  • Define each parameter

36. You are preparing to present in front of a large audience. Which of the following is a best practice for speaking to an audience?

  • Speak as quickly as possible
  • Take as few pauses as possible
  • Take long pauses between sentences
  • Speak at a relaxed pace in short sentences

37. You are running a colleague test with your coworkers. One coworker points out that your data has limitations. What can you do to prepare to explain the limitations of your data? Select all that apply.

  • Consider the context
  • Critically analyze any correlations
  • Understand the strength and weaknesses of your tools
  • Be ready with industry jargon and acronyms

38. You are presenting your theory about the correlation between recent sales increases and a current pop culture trend. When is the best time to establish your presentation’s hypothesis for the audience?

  • Before the conclusion
  • During the conclusion
  • Before the presentation
  • During the introduction

39. One of your coworkers is giving their first presentation and wants advice. What can you tell them to help ensure a successful presentation?

  • Assume the audience has a lot on their mind
  • Include as many unrelated details as possible
  • Use long sentences to sound professional
  • Assume your audience knows what you do

40. What can you do before a presentation to ensure that you can answer questions about the integrity of your data? Select all that apply.

  • Remove the appendix from your presentation
  • Delete scripts that you do not use very often.
  • Keep a log of all transformations.
  • Store clean versions of your scripts.

41. What can you do to ensure that all members of your audience can benefit from your presentation even though they may not be able to experience it the same way? Select all that apply.

  • Convey information through visuals instead of text
  • Share your presentation directly, in person
  • Put forethought into how accessible your data visualizations are
  • Share the presentation in an email

42. You decide to run a colleague test before a presentation to your stakeholders. What kinds of information might the exercise give you? Select all that apply.

  • The limitations of your data
  • What kinds of questions your stakeholders might ask
  • Which areas of your presentation are confusing
  • What assumptions to make about your stakeholders’ perspectives

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