Presentation Design Skill

When to Activate

• Structuring a slide deck from scratch
• Reviewing a presentation for narrative clarity
• Choosing between narrative frameworks (technical talk, executive update, investor pitch)
• Writing an opening hook or closing CTA
• Adapting the same content for different audiences
• Reducing slide density when too many ideas compete on a single slide
• Selecting the correct data-slide headline format (conclusion-first, not metric name)
• Preparing a conference talk, demo day, or board presentation where audience engagement is critical

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Narrative Arcs

Choose the arc based on the goal of the presentation.

Problem → Solution → Evidence (technical talks, demos)

1. The Problem     — what breaks today, who suffers, how much it costs
2. Our Approach    — what we built and why this approach
3. Evidence        — demo, metrics, before/after
4. How to Get It   — next steps, availability, call to action

Best for: conference talks, internal engineering demos, product launches.

Before → After → Bridge (transformation story)

1. Before          — current state (painful, expensive, slow)
2. After           — future state (fast, profitable, delightful)
3. Bridge          — how to get from Before to After (your solution)

Best for: sales decks, executive presentations, change management.

Why → What → How (executive / board)

1. Why             — the strategic opportunity or risk (1-2 slides)
2. What            — the recommendation / decision needed (1 slide)
3. How             — the plan to execute (2-3 slides)

Best for: board presentations, executive summaries, budget requests.

Choosing the right arc

Audience	Arc
Engineers / practitioners	Problem → Solution → Evidence
Sales / customers	Before → After → Bridge
Executives / board	Why → What → How
Mixed	Why → What → How (keep technical detail in appendix)

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Slide Density Rules

One idea per slide. If you have two ideas, use two slides.

Rule	Target
Words per slide	≤ 40 (headline + bullets)
Font size minimum	28pt for body text, 36pt+ for headlines
Bullet points	≤ 5 per slide; prefer 3
Images vs. text	One chart or image per slide, not multiple
Full sentences	Only for quotes — all other text in fragments

The "squint test"

Hold the slide at arm's length and squint. One thing should stand out as the main point. If two things compete, split the slide.

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Slide Type Catalogue

Type	Purpose	Key layout rule
Title	Opening, section dividers	Large headline, no body text
Agenda	Show structure up front	3-5 items max; use later as progress marker
Concept	Explain a single idea	Headline + icon or single diagram
Data	Show metrics or results	One chart only; headline states the conclusion
Demo	Live demo or screenshots	"Demo" label; fallback screenshot always ready
Quote	Social proof, customer voice	Large quote, attribution; no bullets
Transition	Section separator	Title only; restate section theme
Call to Action	Close the loop	One clear action; remove everything else

Data slide rule

The headline on a data slide states the conclusion — not the chart title.

WRONG headline:  "Monthly Active Users"
CORRECT headline: "MAU grew 40% YoY, driven by mobile"

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Opening Hooks

The first 60 seconds determine audience engagement for the rest of the talk. Choose one:

1. Provocative question

Ask something the audience cannot immediately answer:

"How many of your production deployments would fail a GDPR audit right now?"

2. Surprising statistic

Use a number that defies expectations:

"The average developer spends 4.5 hours a week waiting for CI. That's 3 full weeks per year."

3. Short story (60 seconds)

A concrete incident with a clear protagonist:

"In March 2023, a single missing database index took down our checkout page for 47 minutes. This talk is about why that took us 3 hours to find — and the alerting system we built so it can never happen again."

4. Problem statement

Name the problem directly — no preamble:

"Code review is broken. PRs sit open for 4 days on average. By then, the author has context-switched twice and the reviewer has forgotten the ticket. Today I'm showing you how we cut that to 8 hours."

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Closing Patterns

The 3-Point Takeaway

End with exactly three bullets — the most memorable structure:

## What to remember

1. [Most important insight from the talk]
2. [Second insight — complements, not contradicts]
3. [Actionable next step]

Single CTA (Call to Action)

One clear action — not a menu of options:

WRONG: "Check out our docs, follow us on Twitter, try the beta, or reach out on Slack"

CORRECT: "Try it today at clarc.sh/get-started"

Q&A slide

Never end on a blank slide. Always have:

• The Q&A invite ("Questions?")
• Your name, handle, or contact
• One reminder of the single most important takeaway

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Audience Adaptation

Technical audience (engineers, practitioners)

• Show code snippets — but only 10-15 lines, syntax highlighted
• Include architecture diagrams
• Reference specific tools, libraries, versions
• Demo is expected and valued

Executive audience

• Lead with business impact (revenue, cost, risk)
• Avoid acronyms or define on first use
• Use analogies for technical concepts
• Keep detail in backup slides (appendix)

General / mixed audience

• Analogies bridge technical concepts ("It's like a traffic light for your code")
• Story-driven: one protagonist with a problem, your solution helps them
• Avoid industry jargon entirely

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Checklist

• One narrative arc chosen and applied consistently
• First slide is not a title slide with just the talk name — start with the hook
• ≤40 words per slide
• ≥28pt font throughout
• Data slides: headline states the conclusion, not the metric name
• One chart per slide maximum
• Opening hook is concrete (statistic, question, or story) — not "Hi, I'm X and today I'll talk about Y"
• Closing has exactly 3 takeaways and one CTA
• Last slide includes contact / Q&A prompt (not a blank or "Thank You")
• Appendix prepared for deep-dive questions