K-Flakes # 2010-5: Tips to create a good PPT presentation (Computer based presentation)

Tips to create a good computer-based presentation (like MS-Power Point presentation)

·         The principle of MECE, mutually exclusive but collective exhaustive. A McKinsey concept. Ensures completeness in the message without repetition.

·         Difference between a slide pack that is used to make a presentation versus a slide pack that is used as a document. The former needs to be brief and concise (Here we are concerned with the former).

·         Too much text in a presentation leads the audience confused as to whether to listen to you or look at the slides.

·         A picture is worth 1000 words. However 1000 pictures are worth nothing. Complicated diagrams that look like a map of London Metro can be distracting.

·         Usage of bullet points with single line sentences.

·         Not more than 5 bullet points per heading. 3 are ideal. In my opinion any idea illustrated by more than 5 bullet points tends to dilute it.

·         The presenter should prepare his own slides just as a paratrooper should pack his own parachute.

·         There are two kinds of presentation flows. Inductive and deductive. The former presents the bigger picture first and then provides the supporting details. The latter provides the details and then proceeds to deduce the conclusion. The method one deploys depends on the presenter’s thought process and the audience.

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