A Rant About Slide Decks

Here’s a question for you:

When was the last time you were blown away by a presenter’s slide deck?

Too high a bar?

Okay, how about this:

When’s the last time you thought, “Wow, that was a solid slide deck”?

Still drawing a blank?

You’re not alone. Because, let’s be honest, most slide decks are deadly boring.

Which is wild—because most presenters spend the majority of their prep time designing those very decks!

So why is this happening? Why are presenters spending countless hours honing a slide deck that does little to support their goals?

I have a theory: most of the “best practices” we’re taught about building slide decks are, frankly, bad practices.

Starting with those first three slides.

Slides 1–3

As a public speaking coach, I’m often asked to help clients prepare presentations that include a slide deck. And almost without fail, the first five minutes of these presentations follow the same tired format:

• Title slide
  
• Bio slide
  
• Agenda slide
  

And listen—while there are times when this formula might make sense, more often than not?

It doesn’t serve the meeting—or the audience.

Let’s pause and think about it:

When you start a virtual meeting or a presentation, what’s your actual goal for the first 30 seconds?

Most of my clients, after some reflection, tell me:

“I want to connect with my audience.”

But let me ask you: Does a title slide really help you connect with your audience?

In fact, if your goal is to connect early, you shouldn’t be sharing your screen yet at all.

Let them see you—your full face, not a tiny postage stamp in the corner of a slide.

Here’s my suggestion:
Begin the meeting with just your face on the screen.

Connect with your audience as a human first.
Then, once you’ve established that connection, then share your title slide—briefly.

And please—don't linger there.
State the title of your presentation, let the audience glance at it, and move on.

Now, About That Bio Slide...

Do we really need it?

If you opened your presentation by connecting personally with your audience, you’ve likely already introduced yourself.

So do we need a whole slide running through your résumé?

I’d much rather hear your story than see a bullet-point list of credentials next to a headshot.

Again, there are situations where a bio slide might be necessary—but in most cases?
Skip it.

Introduce yourself naturally at the top of your presentation.
And when you do, tell us your story—not just your CV.

If your goal is to connect, a story will always be more effective than a list of degrees and accolades in tiny font.

 

The Infamous Agenda Slide

I don't know when it became the standard to present an agenda slide, but I think it’s time we question this default setting.

I’ve always been puzzled by the omnipresence of the “Agenda Slide” in the corporate world—often stuffed with every single plot point that will be covered in the next hour.

I figured I must be missing something, so I recently asked my husband (a veteran of countless corporate meetings) what he thought the point of an agenda slide was.

His answer?

"Well, sometimes it’s helpful when people need to know when they can leave."

Fair enough!

If your meeting includes participants who might need to duck out halfway through, an agenda slide that highlights dismissal times is useful.

But I’d venture to guess that most of us don’t want audiences leaving halfway through.
In fact, we’d like them hanging on our every word until the very end!

And if that’s the case, an in-depth play-by-play of every topic you’re about to cover just robs your presentation of suspense and momentum.

What audiences really need at the top of a presentation isn’t a blow-by-blow breakdown.

They need to know why they should care.

Instead of an agenda slide, I recommend an objective slide:

• Why are we here?
  
• What problem are we solving?
  
• What will they walk away with if they stay engaged until the end?
  
  

That’s the information that sets the stage—without spoiling the story.

But what about the rest of the deck?!

As I started writing this blog, I realized I could easily fill a whole book with my thoughts on what’s wrong with slide decks.

(And who knows, maybe I will someday!)

But for now, I’ll stop my rant at slide 3, and attempt to zoom back out to the big picture strategy I recommend.

Next time you put together a slide deck, I challenge you to ask yourself these three questions for every slide:

• What am I trying to accomplish here?
  
• Is a slide the best way to meet that goal?
  
• Could I achieve the same purpose with fewer words—or no slide at all?
  

The purpose of today’s blog was to provoke your curiosity about slide deck “best practices.”

And since I’ve already used plenty of words toward that goal, I’ll wrap it up here and call it a day. ;)