The 3-point Approach

During the Q&A, in particular for audiences larger than your immediate working group, consider the following 3-point approach for responding.

1 — Listen

Listening to the question means waiting until the question has been asked to completion before answering. It’s a polite courtesy to the audience member. This means waiting even if they’re rambling or if — in your opinion — it’s an obvious, boring or basic question.

Remember to number your slides so that when an audience member has a question to a specific figure they just need to remember the slide number. You can use the navigator in PowerPoint or Keynote to jump directly to that slide

Jumping the gun and answering the wrong question can be embarrassing and make a confusing topic even more so. Incomplete questions also deny the rest of the audience the chance to know exactly what is being talked about since they may not have anticipated the whole question before it was completely asked.

2 — Paraphrase

After the audience member has asked the question either repeat the question verbatim or paraphrase it in your own words. This serves two important purposes.

First, it lets them know that you heard and understood their question correctly. This can be particularly helpful if the question is confusing, either because the material itself is confusing, or they didn’t understand it correctly, or they used different terms than you’re used to.

Second, if people have not heard it, this gives them a chance to join the conversation. This is important if it’s in a large room without microphones for the audience, but is also relevant in smaller rooms if for the people sitting behind the audience member who asked the question.

3 — Pause

Pause, and take a couple seconds to think about the answer before responding. This is helpful on two levels.

First, if you don’t know the answer, this gives you a moment to collect your thoughts, consider if you really understand what’s being asked, and then structure your best response. This is effective for nervous and over-confident presenters alike.

Second, if you do know the answer, this gives you an opportunity to add value to both the question and response. One hallmark of the perceived quality of an item — or, in this case, an answer — is the amount of time needed to produce it. This is a device employed in many industries, including across STEM fields. For example, we may know that a pre-existing method exists for a given task, but taking longer than necessary to complete it adds to the perceived value of our work. Here, both our response and the question increase in value by adding a short pause.