Public speaking & life events · Public Speaking
How to prepare for a conference talk: face Dr. Kenji Tanaka's Q&A
Build the talk around one claim and the evidence for it, cut anything that doesn’t serve that claim, and rehearse it out loud against the clock until it fits with a minute to spare. Then list the hardest questions an expert in the room could ask, especially about trade-offs you made, and practice short, honest answers, including “we didn’t solve that.” Here you give a ten-minute talk and take questions from Dr. Kenji Tanaka, a database expert in the front row.
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Updated October 2026
Who it's for
Who this practice is for
- Engineers giving their first conference talk and worried about the Q&A.
- Speakers who know their topic but freeze when an expert pushes back.
- Academics and researchers presenting technical work to a room of engineers.
- Anyone who has a 10-minute slot and wants to make one lesson land.
What happens
How a session goes
- You speak first: give your 10-minute lightning talk out loud about migrating a 2TB database to Postgres with zero downtime.
- Dr. Kenji Tanaka, a database expert in the front row, reacts and asks questions about your talk.
- He pushes on your choices: your rollback strategy, your trade-offs, and what you actually know.
Real lines from a test session
What Dr. Kenji Tanaka said in a test session
“Strong talk, thanks. … What was your rollback strategy for those partial failures?”
“That's an honest answer. Your talk convinced me that your team did careful work, but what I'll remember is that you trusted a dead-letter queue and eventual consistency instead of building a true rollback mechanism.”
“That's a valid tradeoff, but it means your claim of zero downtime is only true as long as nothing went wrong in that small window.”
From a test session of this practice in the app, lightly trimmed. Your session goes its own way: the character reacts to what you say.
You go first
Ways to open
- “At 2 a.m. on a Sunday, we moved two terabytes to Postgres and nobody noticed. Here's how.”
- “Zero downtime is a lie we told our boss. Here's how we made it almost true.”
- “This talk is about one decision: dual writes. Why we did it, and what it cost us.”
Example first lines to adapt. Fill in the brackets with your own details.
The scorecard
What the scorecard looked like for Conference Talk and Expert Q&A
“if a write succeeded on the old system but failed on Postgres, our dual-write handler would catch the exception and retry with an exponential backoff, up to three times.”
You used jargon-heavy terms (dual-write handler, exponential backoff) that could lose a less technical listener.
Try instead: “If the old database saved the data but Postgres didn't, our code automatically tried again a few times, waiting longer each time, and flagged any remaining issues for us to check.”
What went well: Your openness about the rollback not being perfect made you trustworthy and avoided bluffing.
Real scorecard output from one of our test runs. In test runs the practice answers are written by a test script, not by a customer.
What good looks like
What a strong answer does here
- You lead with one clear lesson, not a list of everything your team did.
- You tell the story with real numbers: 2TB, 2 a.m., zero downtime.
- You name the trade-offs honestly instead of pretending nothing could go wrong.
- When you don't know, you say I don't know, and it lands as confidence, not weakness.
Scored on:
- Structure
- Clarity
- Handling questions
- Presence
Common mistakes
Weak lines, and what to say instead
Weak: “We had zero downtime, so there was no real risk.”
Better: “We had zero downtime, but only because we accepted a small window where partial failures could happen.”
Claiming no risk sounds like bluffing to an expert who knows migrations.
Weak: “I'm not sure, but I think we used dual writes.”
Better: “We used dual writes for six weeks. I can walk you through why, and where it hurt.”
Hedging makes you sound unsure of your own work.
Weak: “That's a good question. Let me read you the next slide.”
Better: “Short answer: we didn't build a true rollback. We trusted a dead-letter queue. That's the trade-off.”
Slide-reading in Q&A wastes the room's time and hides your view.
Weak: “We just followed best practices and it worked out.”
Better: “We chose eventual consistency over a full rollback because our window was small and our team was tired.”
Vague answers make the expert doubt you did careful work.
Conference Talk and Expert Q&A: start talking in a few seconds. Your own side stays yours to fill in.
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Your public speaking practice plan
- Make your main point clear
- Use examples and a logical structure
- Handle audience questions
Start with a free worksheet, then test your own response with a voice or text roleplay. Your first complete coaching report is free once across all areas. Create a free account to save your goal, actual words, and downloadable notes.
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FAQ
Questions about Conference Talk and Expert Q&A
What does Dr. Kenji Tanaka actually ask about?
He asks about your talk's weak spots. In a test session, he asked about the rollback strategy for partial failures. He listens for honest trade-offs and whether your zero-downtime claim holds up when something goes wrong. He's not trying to trick you. He's testing whether you know your own system. Try it free →
Who is this practice for?
Engineers, academics and first-time conference speakers. It's for anyone with a 10-minute slot who wants to handle an expert in the front row without freezing. You give the talk first, then face the questions. Try it free →
How do you handle a question you can't answer at a conference?
Say what you do know, say plainly what you don’t, and offer to follow up: “We didn’t measure that; I’d love to compare notes after the session.” Experts in the audience respect a clear boundary far more than a confident answer that falls apart under one more question. Try it free →
How far ahead should I start rehearsing a conference talk?
Start full run-throughs out loud at least a week or two before, once the slides are mostly done, and do a final timed run the day before. Rehearsing early shows you what to cut while there is still time, and the Q&A deserves its own practice. Try it free →
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