You Know More Than You Think: A Framework for Delivering a Talk That Sticks
If you've spent years building on ServiceNow, there's a good chance you've solved problems that other practitioners are running into.
That's exactly what makes a great session and your expertise is something our Community needs. The challenge in turning that into a talk is usually in how to package it and deciding what to leave out.
This post covers a two-part framework developed for the ServiceNow Community Speaker Studio program, where Community speakers developed their talk before presenting at Knowledge 2026. We've included recordings from our initial training sessions and a worksheet so you can do this on your own.
The framework has two components:
- A five-question blueprint for structuring your talk with the audience at the center.
- Five design principles for making your slides support what you're saying rather than compete.
Building a talk using an objective framework makes the process less about performance anxiety and more about solving a problem for a specific person. This framework borrows from the best techniques of actors and teachers. Define the goal, identify the audience, determine what the audience needs to walk away able to do, then build from that.
There are many frameworks for public speaking, and no single one works for everyone. What this one does particularly well is help those who have expertise but struggle to unpack it, reduce it down, and land the "ah-ha" moment for their audience. If that's the challenge you're working through, this is a useful place to start.
Part 1: The Talk Blueprint
▶ Session 1: The Talk Blueprint (YouTube)
📄 Talk Blueprint Worksheet (Attached at bottom of article ⬇️)
A word of advice: approach your session as a teacher, not a speaker.
Teachers build toward a clear learning objective, scaffold steps to reach it, and use storytelling to keep people engaged. When you're focused on what your audience will be able to do by the end of your talk, attention moves off your own nerves and onto the problem you're solving for them. That focus is where confidence actually comes from.
Five questions. Each builds on the previous one.
1. Story: What problem did you solve?
Every good technical talk has a story underneath it. Pixar's storytelling framework captures the bones of it well: "Once upon a time... Every day... Until one day... Because of that... Until finally... Ever since then." The situation, the disruption, the struggle, the turn, the resolution, and the insight that traveled.
What makes a problem worth sharing is the combination of stakes, conflict, and context. Something had to matter. There had to be friction. The circumstances had to make solving it genuinely necessary. If your audience can see themselves in the problem, they'll stay for the solution.
2. Audience: Who, specifically, are you teaching?
"ServiceNow developers" isn't specific enough. "Platform admins with 2+ years experience who are comfortable with Flow Designer but have never built a scoped application" is. The more specific the audience definition, the easier every decision of what to put in your talk becomes. You're building for the person who needs exactly what you learned.
3. Learning Objective: What will they be able to DO?
One thing. What action verb applies at the end? Configure. Build. Avoid a specific mistake. Implement a pattern. "Attendees will gain insights into best practices" is not an objective. "After this session, you'll be able to build a scoped application that passes ATF gates before deployment" is. Don't be afraid of being specific.
Your learning objective is also your edit filter. Think of explaining to someone how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You know exactly what you want them to be able to do at the end, and that clarity shapes every decision: what to include, what to cut, how to sequence it. When you're running short on time or deciding what to trim, you have a clear goalpost. Does this get my audience where I want them to go? If not, cut it.
4. Steps: What are your three teaching steps?
Most speakers are coached to deliver three takeaways. Framing them as learning steps rather than key points keeps them tighter to your objective and helps you stay judicious about what to include. Each step should expand what the audience can do. The learning objective you defined above is your destination and your teaching steps are how you get there.
5. Hook: How do you open?
Skip the "Hi, I'm [name], I've been on the platform for five years" opener. Open with the problem, a counterintuitive stat, a compressed version of your story, or a question your audience is already asking themselves. Earn their attention before you introduce yourself.
Part 2: Making Your Slides Work
▶ Session 2: Slides & Delivery (YouTube)
Jamey Austin, who leads content strategy for the ServiceNow Community team and has reviewed more decks than he can count, covered five principles for slides that are invaluable any time you're building a presentation.
The underlying idea: our brains can mostly only listen or read. When slides are overloaded and you're audience is still trying to listen to what you're saying, they stop absorbing and check out. Slides should punctuate what you're saying, not carry the full weight of it.
1. One focus. Each slide gets one idea. A clear header, clear purpose, plenty of space. Everything you want to add context on, say out loud.
2. Guide the eye. Use color, size, and emphasis to direct attention. When something is consistent and one element breaks the pattern, people notice. Don't leave it to chance where someone looks first.
3. Show, then tell. Put the visual up, let it land, then speak to it. The slide shows something; your job is to add the context it can't include. Reading what's already on the slide is the version to avoid.
4. Less is more. The hardest one to follow, and the most common problem in decks. If you're feeling like something should be on the slide, it probably should be said instead. A single metric, impossible to ignore, will outlast a slide with ten. The audience moves through a full day of sessions. One memorable thing beats a comprehensive list they won't retain. As Jamey put it in the session, quoting Da Vinci: simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
5. Logical flow. Steps, sequences, and expected outcomes give people something to hold onto. They're listening and scanning simultaneously. Make the scan confirm what you're saying.
One practical note on screenshots: if something doesn't read clearly at 150% zoom, take a closer screenshot. If you need to show multiple UI elements, use multiple slides. Guide the eye to the one thing that matters, one pass at a time.
Before You Present
Having a structure that you know deeply is a major part of what gives you confidence on stage. When you know your story, know your audience, and are laser-focused on what you want them to do and how to get them there, you have a roadmap you can come back to if nerves show up.
But there are a few other preparation techniques that are crucial.
- Practice, practice, practice. Say your talk out loud start to finish before you give it. Do this several times. You'll find the spots where you trip and can fix them ahead of time. You'll also start to hear what can be cut or simplified.
- Practice in front of someone who hasn't heard it and ask them directly: does this make sense?
- Learn to pause. Silence feels longer to the speaker than the audience. Let your statements land, get comfortable taking a breath on stage. Most of the time when speakers are too quiet or fast, it's because they aren't breathing along the way and feel like it's a mistake to give a couple seconds of silence.
Resource Recap
📄 Talk Blueprint Worksheet (Attached at bottom of article ⬇️)
