Present Beyond Measure

6Create Conceptual Clarity with Analogies

“An analogy is like a thought with another thought's hat on.”

—Gillian Jacobs

Ever notice how most data presentations are like a box of chocolates because you never know what you're going to get? That can be a good thing and a bad thing, where you need to walk the fine line between clarity and information overwhelm.

The purpose of this book is to help you create as much surprise and delight with your presentations as a classic Whitman's Sampler, without the unpleasant sugar hangover!

The way I just opened this chapter was quite intentional. Do you see how I related the book's topic to something relatable (and munchable) in the real world? And that it referenced the wildly popular catchphrase from the movie Forrest Gump? That was an analogy, and analogies are your best friends for getting less technically savvy stakeholders to understand complex concepts.

An analogy is a powerful tool for comprehension, especially during a technical presentation. It is a micro-story, defined as “a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.”¹

The easiest ideas to relate between two things are tangible and familiar objects, activities, places, and systems. Those two things could be data lakes and real lakes, or website tracking cookies and triple-chocolate chunk cookies. Not all analogies are as straightforward as these, but you get the idea.

Russell Brunson is the author of the bestseller Expert Secrets ...