Presentation Development Primer (Storyboarding, Slide Design)

Crowdsourced Business
Presentation Design Service

Presentation Development Primer
Storyboarding, Slide Structuring,
Graph Design
This document teaches the basics of developing an effective business presentation.
It covers methodologies widely practiced by top management consulting firms, such
as McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. It covers the topics of Storyboarding, Slide
Structuring, and Graph Design. As presentations serve as both communication tools
and work products, presentation development is a useful skill to have.
August 31, 2013
ORIGINAL PROJECT DETAILS
http://pptlab.com/ppt/Management-Consulting-Basics-Presentation-Development-Primer-43

Contents

 Overview

 Storyboarding

 Slide Structuring

 Graph Design

PPT Lab (www.PPTLab.com) – Crowdsourced Business Presentation Design Service

3

Contents

 Overview

 Storyboarding

 Slide Structuring

 Graph Design


5

The storyboard can be developing by following the first 3 steps of the 6phase problem solving process, illustrated below
Storyboarding – Problem Solving Process Approach

Define the
problem

Structure
the
problem

Develop
the
analyses
to test the
issues

Build
workplan

Run the
test and
analyses

Synthesiz
e
and report

By step three, before we start
the analysis, we will have
enough information to construct
our storyboard

The above problem solving process is a popular methodology used by management
consulting firms when structuring their engagements.


7

In the third step, we build tests to analyze the far right side of the decision
tree—in this example, we will example just the 2 highlighted options
Problem Solving Process – Analyses

Define the
problem

Increase traffic

Increase revenue

Struct
ure the
proble
m

Develop
the
analyse
s to test
the
issues

Synthes
ize
and
report

Can staff be
reduced?
$

Increase conversion

Raise prices

Run the
test and
analyse
s

Build
workpla
n

Difference
from
benchmark
Can salaries be
lowered?

Can Flevy.com increase
its operating margin,
particularly by lowering
its costs?

Levels in a company

Reduce labor costs

Cut costs

Are there cheaper
hosting plans?

$

Reduce hosting
costs
Reduce search
engine marketing
costs

Always sketch out your
charts—this will help guide
your analysis

Monthly
cost
Are there SEM
providers?

SEO options


9

Now, let’s create a storyboard based on these expected findings
Expected Findings Development
ORIGINAL EXPECTED FINDINGS

RE-ORDERED AND RE-WORDED FINDINGS

• Most employees are working long hours
and engaged in extra duties—it is
Can staff be reduced?
unlikely staffing levels can be reduced

Can salaries be
lowered?

• Certain levels of employees are paid
above their market salaries

• It is likely some employees are overpaid
relative to the market and can have
their salaries lowered
Can we write
this more clearly
and build
a story?

Are there cheaper
hosting plans?

Are there SEM
providers?

• There are no excess capacity, as
employees are working long hours and
taking on extra tasks

• Hosting is a commodity and there
should be low cost providers that will
allow us to reduce hosting costs by 20%

• We can find a low cost hosting provide
without sacrificing uptime and reduce
costs by 20%

• Flevy.com can utilize cheaper SEM
providers from offshore companies

• Flevy.com can utilize an offshore SEM
provider to reduce SEM costs by 50%

Try to keep the solution sentence crisp and concise—preferably maintain it at only 1
sentence.


11

The storyboarding process is powerful enough to cover any concerns you
may have
Storyboarding – Final Concerns

?
What if the data or message in the
storyboard changes after the analysis?

?
What if the storyboard has no story?

?
What if I have data that does not fit in my
storyboard?

• That is normal—you will just adjust your
analysis and story accordingly

• That is impossible—if you don't have a story,
then you are not linking the data together
correctly

• Either the data is incorrect (which is very
unlikely) or your storyboard needs to change
(more likely the reason)

The storyboard forces you to be concise and deliver a message as opposed to data—
clients like messages.


13

A slide is composed of 3 key components—the Headline, Body, and
Bumper
Slide Structure Overview

1

2

The Headline is at the top of the slide.

The Body occupies the central
part of the slide.

3

The Bumper appears at the bottom
of the slide.

This is the ―Bumper‖ statement, oftentimes also called the ―Kicker‖
by many consulting firms.


15

The Headline is the first thing your audience reads—and it conveys the Key
Message to the slide
Guidelines and Rules of Thumb – Headline



The Key Message goes into the Headline.



The Headline should be 2 lines max. If you find yourself exceeding 2 lines, reword to cut
down the length.



Avoid empty statements.



Say something meaningful that directs attention to the slide’s important point. For
instance, “ROE varies greatly across businesses.”



Use Headlines as the storyboard to your document.



The Headline should only be 1 sentence.

Reading all the Headlines, in order from the first slide to the last, should tell a coherent
story—i.e. your storyboard.


17

Lastly, at the bottom (or sometimes top of the Body, depending on your
firm’s framework), is the Bumper message that answers the “So what?”
Guidelines and Rules of Thumb – Bumper



The Bumper, oftentimes referred to as the “Kicker,” is the “So what?” statement. In other
words, the audience may ask “So what?” in reaction to the Headline.



The Bumper must be insightful. It cannot be obvious



Use the Bumper to get your audience to think about what is possible.



The Bumper should be 2 lines max. If you find yourself exceeding 2 lines, reword to cut
down the length.



The Bumper should be only 1 sentence.

If you can’t think of a Bumper for your slide, then ask yourself, ―Do we really
need this slide?‖


19

Don’t overwhelm or underwhelm your audience, and follow these
additional rules of thumb when constructing your storyboard
Guidelines and Rules of Thumb – Final Thoughts



Each slide, like a paragraph, tells a small story that’s part of the overarching story.



Create a logical flow from beginning to end.



Be sure each slide fits the logical of the overall story.



Don’t overwhelm your audience.



Never make a point that cannot be substantiated.



Don’t underwhelm your audience.

E.g., by jamming too much information on 1 slide, by
including material that is beyond its comprehension

E.g., with too little (or trivial) information, by
making simple information seem complex


Need to provide additional detail?
Feel free to use these call out boxes.


21

First, the Headline must be aligned with the graph we are displaying—i.e.
the headline must pick out the Key Message in our data
Headline Message and the Graph

In designing the content that goes into the slide, the
first thing we must consider is: Does the Headline
pick out the Key Message in the data?
In other words, can the audience understand the
content of the slide (typically a graph) just by reading
the Headline?

Certain levels of employees are paid above
their market salaries
$
Difference
from
benchmark

Levels in a company


23

Lastly, verify that we are using the right type of graph
Graph Type Selection
Is this the right type of graph to use?
Use Graphs

• Time series 

Use Line Charts

• Share 

Use Pie Parts

• Position 

Use Matrix / 2x2 Charts

• Size 

Illustrative Headline message—certain levels of
employees are paid above their market salaries

• Information 

Use Bar Charts

• Comparisons  Use Bar/Stacked Bar Charts

THIS IS THE GRAPH TITLE
$

• Degree 

Use Harvey Balls

• Composition 

Use % Ball/Area Charts

Does the graph send one message clearly?

Difference
from
benchmark

Do you need to label the data points (with numbers/key)?
Do the data points add up?
What units are being displayed?
• What is the scale?

• What and should be the origin of the scale?
What are the data points in this order?
• Random pattern for effect
• Chronological
• Size
Levels in a company

• Alphabetical
Is a legend needed?

Depending on the type of graph, you may end up hiding or highlighting
the key insights.

25

For a more in depth discussion on presentation design and development,
check out the eBook, Become a PowerPoint Guru (from LearnPPT.com)
Become a PowerPoint Guru
Become a PowerPoint Guru covers the following topics:
• The Basics – Covers the initial steps of setting up your PowerPoint
button shortcuts, keyboard shortcut keys, and the Consulting
Presentation Framework.
• Getting Your Story Straight – Learn to construct an insightful and
cohesive story for your audience using concepts like the Pyramid
Principle and MECE. Understand the psychology of your audience
and how to structure each slide accordingly using the PCPV
framework.
• The Art of PowerPoint – Learn basic to advanced diagramming
techniques (including how to construct "The Missing Powerpoint
Diagram"). Understand the multitude of charts at your disposals,
when to use each kind, and how to design them in PowerPoint.
This eBook is available at http://learnppt.com/ebook.php.

All of PPT Lab’s presentations are developed based on the principles covered in this
book.

27

Presentation Development Primer (Storyboarding, Slide Design)

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