Microsoft is always working towards improving the user experience across all its platform. One of the latest developments is a feature that helps you improve your presentation skills when using Microsoft Teams. On September 9, 2021, the company announced that it would introduce a speaker coach feature to Microsoft Teams, a personalized meeting coach to help you prepare for presentations.

At Coleman Technologies, we sought to find out how the software works.

How Speaker Coach Works

Microsoft announced that the feature would be available on all platforms. Initially, it was introduced in PowerPoint for the web and was ideal for professionals to make them more confident presenters. Currently, the software is available for use on all platforms, including Windows, the web, Android, iOS, and Mac.

In a hybrid work environment, your presentation skills are crucial. Speaker coach relies on AI to guide you on your pace, poor grammar, use of monotone, sensitive phrases, and lack of originality. It also notifies you when you interrupt other speakers and reminds you to check in with your audience.

With the feature, you learn to become more confident whether you are the presenter in a meeting or a participant where your input is required. At the end of the rehearsal, speaker coach provides you with a Summary Report that highlights the critical pieces of feedback to help you build on your skills and refine the areas that need polishing.

The experience sounds closely familiar to what happens when you use PowerPoint's presenter coach. In fact, the presenter coach feature in PowerPoint is now speaker coach and works for both PowerPoint and Microsoft Teams.

While speaker coach will only be available from early 2022 for Microsoft Teams, you can get the exact version of the software in PowerPoint now.

Speaker Coach in Microsoft Teams

Speaker coach on the Microsoft Teams platform will be your personalized private coach, helping you bring out your confident side into every meeting. When you activate the feature during a session, you will privately get assistance in the following ways:

• The software guides you on when to slow down and take a breath
• It will help you identify the other person talking at the same time as you so that you can stop talking and listen to what they want to say.
• The speaker coach tool provides you with a comprehensive view of data after the meeting, which entails a confidential report of the moments the software captured to help you rehearse and internalize them for the next meeting.

It's essential to remember that speaker coach in Microsoft Teams is designed for anyone attending the meeting and not only for the presenter. The reason for this is that many meetings usually have more than one speaker. So even if you will only say a few sentences during the meeting, speaker coach will help you organize your ideas and empower you to speak confidently.

Main Critiques in Speaker Coach on PowerPoint

In addition to expanding the availability of the speaker coach on various platforms, Microsoft has also developed the kind of feedback the software provides. The three main areas of critique are:

Body Language 
An excellent presentation entails a lot more than just how you speak. When presenting to an audience virtually or in person, your body presentation significantly impacts the outcome. This is why Microsoft has introduced a capability that leverages your presentation camera to provide you with feedback on your body language.

You should ensure your audience can see your face clearly when making virtual presentations. It is also good practice to maintain a stable and confident glance towards your audience, creating an appropriate gap between you and the camera when making a presentation.

The feature provides feedback in the summary report, indicating the most appropriate distance for an engaging presentation where your audience can clearly see you. It reports whether you are too far or too close to the camera and reminds you to maintain eye contact by facing the camera.

Pronunciation 
One critique area of speaker coach that helps you polish your presentation is your pronunciation. The software will advise you about the correct pronunciation of the words you speak as you rehearse. When it detects a mispronunciation, it displays the word or words and provides an experience to help you practice the correct pronunciation.

You can listen to a recorded pronunciation guide and go over it as many times as necessary until you have mastered the correct pronunciation. The good thing is that the software accounts for variations in accents, which is essential for users in Canada. You have the option to turn off the suggestions if you don't find them helpful or applicable to your case.

Repetitive Language 
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you run out of words and keep saying the same thing using different words? While you may not realize it, your audience may notice, and it can distract them. When it happens, the speaker coach software will help you identify the incidents and rectify them accordingly. By avoiding repetitive phrases or words, you can keep your presentation more engaging. Besides, you will also build a list of synonyms which you can switch for common words and phrases in your next presentation.

Tips for Using Speaker Coach

For the best experience in using speaker coach, we recommend that you keep the following in mind:

• Sign in using a Microsoft account or Microsoft 365. You can view or edit a presentation for free in a web browser if you use PowerPoint and save the file to OneDrive
• Ensure your computer has a microphone so that you can listen to your presentation
• You should connect your computer to the internet
• Rehearse in a quiet place before the actual presentation
• Take a screenshot to save a copy of the rehearsal report, without which it will disappear once you close it.

At Coleman Technologies, we hope you are excited about the availability of the speaker coach software across various platforms as we are. Its multiple features help you make better presentations for more engagement and rewarding outcomes as you collaborate with team members. If you would like any help with any part of speaker coach or Microsoft products for your business, we are here to help. Contact us today to book a consultation with our experts for Microsoft networking, Microsoft security, and Microsoft support.