The surest way to stifle an idea is to write a longwinded presentation deck about it. PowerPoint, Keynote, and Prezi are powerful tools, but the power comes in how they’re used. A weighty presentation deck can get in the way of the idea itself.
The classic Mark Twain quote applies equally when writing a presentation — “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Born out venture capital work as a recipient of many of PowerPoint deck, Guy Kawasaki has been advocating the 10/20/30 Rule for a decade. As he put it:
“I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years.
“Idea Camouflage“, March 2009
“Death by PowerPoint“ December 2011
“PowerPoint-itis“ November 2016
Daniel Tiernan says
If a presenter really gets nervous about not including enough information in their presentation, maybe they should include printed out notes to give to each member of the audience. The presentation can include the emotional connection and main thesis, while the notes serve as backup/data.
Dave S says
Too funny Tom! Your cartoons are so often eerily relevant – no so much as this! I have Edward Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint” on my desk as I prepare for a presentation for tomorrow.
Tom Denford says
I love that little book. Genius
BC says
Obviously too many variables across a full range of different types of presentations to have just one set of guidelines. One of the bigger challenges, in my experience, has been the issue of “send in advance for preview” versus “present it in person first and follow-up with a deck for later review.” The former requires lots more content (don’t want imaginations running wild in the wrong directions!) and one might think the latter not so much — but maybe every bit as much if it’s something getting passed around.
If we narrow this to comments about sales presentations, I can buy into the 10/20/30 rule. However, I’ve seen that line around for a long time — with today’s limited attention spans in general, and constant smartphone interaction no matter what is going on, I’m thinking maybe it’s 1/2/3 today. 🙂 It’s unclear to me how any quality business decisions get made these days given that everyone wants everything reduced to one page — or one text message!
I took a presentation class many years ago that taught the idea that the slides are props, visual aids in support of the presenter’s narrative. The presenter is the hero, not the slides — someone who knows their stuff can do a quality pres’n without visuals though the pres’n does serve as a tool for organizing the delivery and presenting certain data and/or reinforcing visuals to help make a point.
I don’t do many sales pres’ns these days, but over the years I kept cutting words down to nothing more than topics/themes for context and any visuals were driving talking points — e.g. example of past work on the screen with me talking the story through.
Hopefully, perhaps arguably ;), convincing the audience I knew what I was talking about. One thing I am sure of — good slides don’t make up for a presenter’s lack of knowledge about what they’re presenting!
Michael says
Awesome, insightful and spot on…which seems hard to believe in 2017.
Cord Grote says
I actually had a rolling chuckle out loud in my hotel room this morning reading this. Soooooooo important to not blather on in slides!! Thanks for the humor!
Richard Orlando says
Great post. I also love the Jobs quote: “People who know what they are talking about don’t need PowerPoint.”