Reading Time: 4 minutes  

This is part 14 of a 20-part blog series focused on helping you successfully win government oral
presentations.  To read the previous blogs, click here to find the index with individual blogs. In this blog, you’ll learn how to identify and avoid the most common pitfalls that derail presentation development. We'll walk through the persistent challenges teams encounter during deck creation and share practical strategies to keep your development process efficient, organized, and on track.

After more than a decade of coaching teams and developing decks, I’ve seen some issues come up again and again during presentation development. Below are the most common ones for you to watch out for and avoid.  

Reviewer Roughhouse  

One common issue presentation teams frequently face occurs when reviewers change from review to review or when reviewers change their minds. While a certain amount of conflicting and moving reviewer feedback happens every time, when it gets out of hand, the team will usually blow the budget and work unnecessarily long hours. The tips for avoiding the Reviewer Roughhouse are to keep the same group of reviewers consistent and active throughout the development process, and to keep a detailed log of reviewer change requests and the corrective actions taken.   

Configuration Mayhem 

Nothing frustrates and sets back a team more during deck development than losing and redoing work. The most likely cause is when the Deck Boss loses configuration management (CM), and slide changes occur on top of each other without retaining prior changes. Keeping strict CM throughout the process takes discipline and practice. To avoid CM loss, clearly and frequently communicate slide accountablility. Don't use offline copies or pull-down copies to migrate into a single document. I recommend using online collaboration  tools that track changes to make recovery from CM issues less painful.  

Formatting Follies  

Clients who call us after starting their deck development frequently require our deck lead or graphic designers to “clean up the deck.” Or we join the team and quickly discover that the deck has serious issues that must be dealt with before proceeding. The cause is often using a template altered by ad hoc modifications and content passed from other decks by the writers. When these issues combine, the deck looks juvenile and disjointed, which frustrates everyone who tries to fix it. Trident's clean-up effort requires hours of reformatting to standard fonts, formats, alignment, style, colors and graphics. To avoid this pitfall, have a graphic lead and deck guru build your initial deck from your approved outline. 

Correction Crisis

When the deck development team  doesn’t include the entire presentation team, you must have the presentation team review and practice presenting the deck process before  submitting  the deck. When you don’t, the job as coach gets a lot harder. The presentation team WILL find issues with the deck and lose confidence in the content, which comes across when they're presenting. Avoid, this situation by getting buy in and input from them throughout the development process.

Spoiling the Soup  

Just like “too many cooks spoil the soup”, too many reviewers and leaders make the deck frenetic and the development process costly. The buck needs to stop with someone on the team who has the authority to make final decisions and adjudicate conflicting directions from reviewers. Determine who that person is early on, so the team knows where the final decision lies (read in the Common Roles and Responsibilities blog). 

High-Cost Compliance?   

Another hard recovery late in the game occurs when a reviewer finds a missing requirement or a major compliance issue. This can cause a major rework of the current deck at the last minute. Groupthink and tired eyes cause the omission. Use a third-party compliance check to regularly verfiy compliance and avoid this costly error.

Trident Support  

Establishing structure and discipline throughout presentation development is key to avoiding common deck issues. Now that we have gone over these common pitfalls, seeking support from Trident can help keep the process disciplined and aligned. With the right support, teams can maintain clear roles, controlled reviews, and consistent documentation, reducing confusion, rework, and misalignment. Staying disciplined with collaboration and building in compliance checks helps keep development on track and avoids late-stage surprises. Avoiding these pitfalls helps streamline the process and ensures alignment before you submit or present. Contact Trident today to take advantage of our expert orals coach and deck development support. We help you build a compelling, compliant, and dynamic presentation that strengthens delivery.

Don’t miss blog 15: Common Presentation Slides and Graphics.

Written by Jeff Everage    

Jeff is the President and Founder of Trident Proposal Management. As a GovCon Oral Presentation Coach for more than 15 years, Jeff has coached more than 100 teams to success. His insights into oral coaching, gained from the trenches of coaching, are designed to support you and your team in your efforts. As a Navy veteran, Jeff resides in Southern California and provides support to clients worldwide as part of our globally dispersed team.