How to Prepare a Powerful PowerPoint (PowerPoint PPTX Slide Deck)

BENEFITS OF DOCUMENT

1. Explains how to structure your deck using the Pyramid Principle
2. Delivers five critical principles for creating great slides in your deck
3. Offers a framework for evaluating the quality of thinking your deck delivers

DESCRIPTION

This product (How to Prepare a Powerful PowerPoint) is a 20-slide PPT PowerPoint presentation slide deck (PPTX) with a supplemental PowerPoint document, which you can download immediately upon purchase.

Many professionals jump into their PowerPoint before thinking through their messaging.

In my experience, this leads to muddled messaging and extensive rework. The messaging gets lost in page after elegant page, many of which become redundant as the messaging slowly bubbles to the surface.

I recommend thinking through your messaging using the Pyramid Principle first to give you a better chance of nailing a powerful message that achieves your desired outcome. 'Slide-making then becomes much faster and easier.

Here is a summary of the three key things this toolkit offers before expanding further on each one below. It ...
1 – Walks you through four steps for preparing Powerful PowerPoints.
2 – Explains how I have translated a message map into a powerful PowerPoint for seven commonly told business stories.
3 – Offers design tips around layout, colour and tone.

1 – Here are the four steps it takes you through:
•  Use a one-pager to frame your messaging
•  SCORE your messaging against five criteria to confirm it is robust
•  Sketch a storyboard to visualise your messaging, page by page
•  Showcase your messaging inside your PowerPoint

2 – Here is how it explains how I translated the message map into a Powerful PowerPoint for seven commonly told business stories. It
•  explains how the one-pager on its own can be enough for less-formal situations
•  illustrates how a short deck is useful when you have a simple story to tell
•  outlines how a medium deck looks when you have one page for each dot point in your story
•  demonstrates how to structure a more complex deck

3 – Offers design tips for your layout, including
•  having a punchy headline
•  ensuring each slide reads right
•  matching the content to the message
•  aligning elements carefully to minimise distraction
•  navigating well so your audience can follow.

This deck was prepared by Davina Stanley of Clarity First. Davina specialises in helping executives get to the point, using the Pyramid Principle. She learned the techniques at McKinsey. Barbara Minto reviewed and approved her training in 2009 and she has used them to help executives globally ever since.

This toolkit equips you with practical steps to streamline your PowerPoint creation process. Visual aids and structured frameworks help ensure clarity and engagement, making your presentations not just informative, but impactful.

Source: Best Practices in Presentation Development, Structured Communication, Presentation Design PowerPoint Slides: How to Prepare a Powerful PowerPoint PowerPoint (PPTX) Presentation Slide Deck, Clarity First

PPT SLIDE DEEP DIVES

Effective Storyboarding for Impactful Presentations

This PPT slide outlines a structured approach to creating effective presentation storyboards. It emphasizes that every presentation deck should begin with 3 foundational pages, regardless of the overall length. The initial page should include a title that encapsulates the main topic or message, along with relevant date information. The second page serves to provide background context, detailing what the discussion is about and why it is relevant. The third page is dedicated to the main message, which is crucial for guiding the audience's understanding.

For longer presentations, the slide suggests that additional pages are necessary, along with navigational aids to keep the audience engaged. It categorizes deck lengths into 3 types: short, medium, and long. A short deck is recommended to have one page per chapter, while a medium deck should include one page per chapter and per point. For longer decks, the guidance expands to one page per chapter, point, and sub-point, ensuring that each aspect of the message is clearly articulated and easy to follow.

The slide also hints at the importance of visual organization, suggesting that main messages should be clearly delineated, possibly with bullet points for clarity. This structured approach not only aids in effective communication, but also enhances retention for the audience. The takeaway here is that a well-organized storyboard can significantly improve the impact of a presentation, making it easier for the audience to grasp and remember key messages.

Framework for Effective One-Page Messaging

This PPT slide outlines a structured approach to creating a concise one-page document that effectively frames messaging for presentations. It emphasizes the importance of clarity and focus in communication. The first section, labeled "WHAT," instructs the presenter to provide a brief introduction that sets the context for the discussion. This introduction should resonate with the audience's existing knowledge and relate to a recent relevant event, ensuring that the audience is engaged and informed from the outset.

Next, the "WHY" section prompts the presenter to articulate the rationale behind discussing the topic. This is crucial for capturing the audience's attention and making the discussion relevant to their interests or needs. Following this, the slide introduces the "AUDIENCE QUESTION," which serves as a guide for identifying what the audience is likely to want to know. This question should be crafted in a way that it naturally arises from the context provided.

The core of the slide is dedicated to "Key insights," where the presenter is encouraged to distill their main messages into succinct points. Each key insight should be supported by 2-5 additional points, organized logically, either through grouping or a deductive structure. This format not only aids in clarity, but also ensures that the insights are easily digestible for the audience. The slide suggests that if necessary, additional key insights can be included, allowing for flexibility based on the complexity of the topic.

Overall, this slide serves as a practical template for anyone looking to enhance their presentation skills, ensuring that the messaging is not only clear, but also impactful.

Framework for Evaluating Messaging Effectiveness

This PPT slide presents a framework titled "SCORE," designed to evaluate messaging effectiveness against 5 key criteria. Each criterion is represented by a letter in the acronym, providing a structured approach to ensure that communications are impactful and resonate with the intended audience.

The first criterion, "S," emphasizes the importance of quickly setting the scene. This involves capturing the audience's attention by focusing on a singular, insightful message. It suggests that clarity in the "What," "Why," and "Main Message" is crucial for engagement.

Next, the "C" stands for conveying the right balance of strategic and operational detail. This criterion highlights the need for a thoughtful mix of high-level strategy and actionable specifics, ensuring that the audience receives both context and the necessary information to understand the message fully.

The "O" focuses on organizing ideas into a well-structured hierarchy. This suggests that effective messaging should follow a logical flow, making it easier for the audience to follow and retain the information presented. The terms "Grouping," "Deductive," and "MECE" (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) imply a rigorous approach to structuring content.

The "R" indicates the importance of readying the audience for a productive discussion. This criterion underscores the need for relevance and readability, ensuring that the audience is prepared to engage with the material meaningfully.

Lastly, the "E" stresses the necessity of engaging the audience through an appropriate medium, style, and tone. It points to the importance of making content skimmable and visually appealing, enhancing the overall effectiveness of the communication.

This framework serves as a practical guide for crafting messages that are not only clear, but also conducive to meaningful dialogue.

Structured Approach to Effective Presentation Design

This PPT slide outlines a structured approach to creating effective presentations. It emphasizes the importance of a storyboard to visualize messaging on a page-by-page basis. The first key point is that every presentation should start with a consistent format, specifically 3 foundational pages. These pages typically include a title, background information, and the main message, which serves as the focal point for the audience.

The slide categorizes presentations based on length, suggesting that shorter decks may only require one page per chapter, while medium-length presentations should allocate one page for each chapter and point. For longer presentations, the recommendation is to dedicate one page per point and its sub-points. This structured approach ensures clarity and helps the audience follow the narrative more easily.

The visual layout of the slide reinforces these concepts, with arrows pointing to different sections that illustrate how to organize content effectively. Each section is labeled to guide the reader through the necessary components of a well-structured slide. The emphasis on navigation aids indicates a focus on maintaining audience engagement and comprehension throughout the presentation.

Overall, the slide serves as a practical guide for anyone looking to enhance their presentation skills. It provides a clear framework that can be adapted to various contexts, ensuring that the messaging is coherent and impactful. By following these guidelines, presenters can create more engaging and informative slides that resonate with their audience.