No matter if you already are a UX Designer or you are in the progress of becoming one, you’ve probably come across one general requirement in every job posting - communication skills. While it can mean everything, from public speaking to conducting workshops and giving your client a call every now and then, there is one shady area here - impromptu speaking.
Impromptu speaking is simply giving a speech without any preparation. When you are told to prepare a presentation about your project for a client or present a portfolio before a job interview, the task is simple — you prepare, practice and present. However, with an impromptu speech, you never know when you will have to deliver, and there will be no (or not much) time for preparation.
Can that even be profitable to you as a UX Designer, who works hard on every step of the project to show off stunning effects at the end, to know how to speak on the hottest spot?
Check my arguments below.
1. Improving thinking on your feet ability
Practicing impromptu speaking in a long term will improve your “thinking on your feet” skill.
Let’s be honest — when you are asked a question about your presentation or a project, sometimes you can get caught off guard– even if it was YOU who prepared everything! That only will give you a huge amount of unnecessary stress and can leave a bad impression on your client. Practicing impromptu speaking in a long term will improve your “thinking on your feet” skill, which later can be beneficial in idea-creating processes and during meetings with your team.
2. Presentations will gain the natural flow
The fact that you talk and not recite what you’ve memorized before can attract your audience and make yourself seem more professional and reliable.
Between impromptu presentations and prepared speeches, there is one significant and quite obvious difference — the level of preparedness. You can prepare a speech in advance, but if you don’t have much experience, it can sound like you are reading the memorized article instead of presenting your work. However, answering questions from your team or client cannot be prepared in advance, so you automatically speak more naturally and straight from your mind. The fact that you talk and not recite what you’ve memorized before can attract your audience and make yourself seem more professional and reliable. Most of us like good explanations delivered by a teacher over dry definitions from the book, right?
3. Self-confidence gets a good boost
Practicing improvised speeches takes part of the pressure off your shoulders
Speaking in front of an audience needs a lot of courage and confidence, especially when you are called to the stage unprepared or have to answer a couple of unpredictable questions. Practicing improvised speeches takes part of the pressure off your shoulders and teaches you how to take the most important information out there without unnecessary analysis. If you don’t know the answer, that’s okay too! But I will cover this in another post.
Impromptu speaking could be challenging, but when you keep practicing it, it will pay off not only with the ability to speak smoothly at any time, anywhere but also it will help your prepared speeches and presentations to sound more natural. Speaking on the spot is not only about finding a quick way out from the situation. I had times when I had to come up with some idea on the stage while conducting a prepared presentation, due to an unexpected situation or I forgot some detail that was important at that moment. Mistake? Maybe, but believe me, sometimes impromptu has a bigger impact than million prepared ideas.
