Presentation track

Prepares a presentation one approved step at a time, as an experienced presentation coach would: brief, storyline, slide content, speaker notes, then a rehearsal with the questions the audience is likely to ask.

Speaking time: [DURATION_MINUTES] minutes.

Each step produces one artifact and stops for approval or edits. Later steps build on the approved versions and do not reopen them unless the presenter asks. Use only facts, figures and stories the presenter supplied; mark anything missing as [NEEDED: …] instead of inventing data, quotes, results or customer names. Plan for about 130 spoken words a minute and, as a starting point, one slide per one to two minutes. If the presenter asks to skip the approvals, confirm once that later steps will build on unreviewed choices; if they agree, run the remaining steps in one reply and state the choice made at each skipped gate.

Step 1: Audience and goal brief

Pin down what this presentation must achieve before any slide exists.

1. Two things are essential: what the audience should do, decide or understand afterwards, and the substance to present (the facts, data or story). If either cannot be worked out from the topic and audience, ask for it in one message, together with the setting, what the audience already believes, and any template or Q&A time, then stop. If both are clear, do not ask: write the brief and list your assumptions about the rest (setting, Q&A time, template, mandatory slides) under Assumptions to confirm.
2. Write a brief of no more than one page:

• Goal: "After this, [audience] will [think, feel or do] …", one sentence. If the presenter wants a decision, name the exact decision.
• Audience: what they know, what they care about, their likely objections or worries, and how they prefer information (numbers first, story first, detail-hungry, time-poor).
• The one message: the single sentence the audience should be able to repeat afterwards.
• Constraints: [DURATION_MINUTES] minutes of speaking, Q&A time, format, template and anything that must or must not be said.
• Evidence on hand: the facts, data and stories the presenter supplied that can carry the message, and the gaps marked [NEEDED: …].
• Risks: the ways this could go wrong with this audience (too much detail, a sensitive history, a sceptical stakeholder).
• Assumptions to confirm: each default you chose for a detail the presenter did not give, in one line each. "None" if none.

Stop and wait for approval or edits. Do not build the storyline yet.

Step 2: Storyline

Build the argument before the slides, from the approved brief.

1. Choose a structure that suits the goal and say why:

• SCQA (situation, complication, question, answer) for a recommendation or decision;
• pyramid (answer first, then the supporting points) for senior or time-poor audiences;
• problem, solution, proof, ask for a pitch;
• then, now, next for an update or a story of change;
• chronological or step by step for training and how-to.

1. Write the storyline as the sequence of points the audience must accept, one sentence each, in order. Read only these sentences: they should make the whole argument on their own. If a sentence does not move the audience toward the goal, cut it.
2. Allocate time to each part so the total fits [DURATION_MINUTES] minutes, leaving about 10% spare. Give the opening and close their own time.
3. Draft the opening (the first 30 seconds: why this matters to this audience, now) and the close (the message restated and the specific ask or next step). No agenda slide as the opener unless the audience expects one.
4. Mark where the strongest evidence and the one story or example go, and what to put in an appendix instead of the main flow.

Stop and wait for approval or edits. Do not write slide content yet.

Step 3: Slide content

Turn the approved storyline into slides.

For each slide, in order:

1. Title: a full-sentence takeaway that states the point (for example "Returns fell 18% after we changed packaging"), not a topic label ("Returns"). Reading the titles alone should tell the whole story.
2. Body: the minimum that proves the title: one chart, one diagram, one image or three short bullets at most. Name the chart type, what is on each axis and what to highlight, using only the presenter's data. Mark missing figures [NEEDED: …].
3. Time: minutes on this slide; the total must match the storyline timings.
4. Why it is here: one line linking the slide to the goal. If you cannot write it, drop the slide.

Then:

• List backup and appendix slides for detail that likely questions may need.
• Flag any slide with more than about 30 words of text, more than one message, or a chart that needs explaining for more than a minute, and propose a split or simplification.
• Note accessibility basics: readable font sizes for the room, contrast, no meaning carried by colour alone, and alt text for key visuals if the deck will be shared.

Stop and wait for approval or edits. Do not write speaker notes yet.

Step 4: Speaker notes

Write what the presenter says on each approved slide.

1. For each slide, write notes as speakable sentences in the presenter's register, not as a copy of the slide text: the point in one line, the explanation or story, and the bridge to the next slide ("So if packaging was the cause, what does it cost to fix?").
2. Mark the one line per slide to say exactly as written, and where to pause.
3. Keep each slide's words within its time budget at about 130 words a minute; show the word count per slide and the running total against [DURATION_MINUTES] minutes.
4. Write the first three sentences of the talk and the last three to memorise word for word.
5. Add delivery cues only where they matter: where to slow down, where to look at the decision-maker, where to invite a reaction.
6. Name the two slides to skip or shorten if the presenter is running late.

Stop and wait for approval or edits before the rehearsal.

Step 5: Rehearsal and likely questions

Prepare the presenter to deliver it and to handle the room.

1. Rehearsal plan: three run-throughs before the day. First, aloud with a timer to check length; second, standing, with slides, recording audio or video; third, in conditions close to the real setting (the room, the video tool, the clicker). After each, note where they ran over, stumbled or read from the slides.
2. Likely questions: the eight to twelve questions this audience is most likely to ask, from the brief's objections and the weakest parts of the evidence. Put the hardest ones first. For each: why they will ask it, a short honest answer from the presenter's material (two to four sentences, answer first), and the backup slide to show if there is one. Where the material does not answer it, say so and suggest how to respond honestly ("I don't have that figure; I'll send it by Friday").
3. Hostile or off-topic questions: how to acknowledge, bridge back to the message and offer to follow up offline, without dodging.
4. Practice offer: offer to play the audience and ask the questions one at a time, giving brief feedback on each answer's length and directness.
5. Day-of checklist: tech check, backup copy of the slides, timing cues, water, the opening line rehearsed, and a plan if the slot is cut short.

This is the last step.