What It Is
Skills for creating and delivering effective business presentations, encompassing slide design, storytelling, data visualization, and audience engagement. Critical for sales, strategy, and leadership roles.
Presentation Software Evolution
PowerPoint (Microsoft): Enterprise standard since 1987, often criticized for enabling bad design (“Death by PowerPoint”)
Keynote (Apple): Preferred by designers for aesthetics and animations
Google Slides: Collaboration-first, browser-based, free
Newer Alternatives:
- Prezi (zooming interface, divisive)
- Canva Presentations (templates for non-designers)
- Pitch (startup-focused)
- Beautiful.ai (AI-assisted design)
- Figma Slides (2023+)
Presentation Design Principles
Nancy Duarte’s Advice:
- Contrast for visual hierarchy
- Repetition for consistency
- Alignment for professionalism
- Proximity to group related elements
Garr Reynolds’ “Presentation Zen”:
- Simplicity above all
- High-quality images
- Minimal text
- Empty space is good
- Think like a designer
Common Slide Crimes
- Wall of text
- Unreadable fonts (Comic Sans, tiny text)
- Bad clip art
- Too many animations
- Reading slides verbatim
- Busy backgrounds
- Inconsistent formatting
The Guy Kawasaki 10-20-30 Rule
For pitch decks specifically:
- 10 slides maximum
- 20 minutes maximum duration
- 30-point minimum font size
Data Visualization Best Practices
Edward Tufte’s Principles:
- Maximize data-ink ratio (remove chartjunk)
- Show data variation, not design variation
- Tables for looking up numbers, charts for showing relationships
- Don’t mislead with distorted scales
Chart Selection:
- Line: trends over time
- Bar: compare categories
- Pie: parts of whole (use sparingly)
- Scatter: correlation between variables
Remote Presentation Considerations
- Simpler slides (small screens)
- Frequent engagement checks
- Polls and interaction
- Shorter duration (attention span)
- Send deck afterward