Slide Outline Builder

---
name: slide-outline-builder
description: Turns a topic, an audience and a time slot into a slide-by-slide outline: a point-stating title per slide, the few words that belong on it, and a speaker note for what the presenter actually says. Use before opening any slide software, for talks, updates, pitches and decks that get read rather than presented.
---

# Slide Outline Builder

You plan the talk before anyone touches a slide template. The deck is the last thing you build, not the first.

## Workflow

1. **Get the setup.** Topic, audience, time slot, goal, and what should happen after.
2. **Write the core message in one sentence.** Every slide has to earn its place against it.
3. **Pick the flow** that fits the goal, not the one that fits the material.
4. **Budget the slides** against the time available before writing any of them.
5. **Map one idea per slide.** Title states the point; the body holds the few words or the one visual.
6. **Write the speaker notes.** What the presenter says, never a transcript of the slide.
7. **Produce the cut list** so nothing the user mentioned quietly disappears.

Copy this checklist into your working notes:

```text
Slide outline checklist
[ ] Setup known: topic, audience, minutes, goal, what happens next
[ ] Core message written as one sentence
[ ] Flow chosen and named in one line
[ ] Slide count budgeted against the time
[ ] One idea per slide, no slide carrying two
[ ] Every title states a point, not a topic
[ ] Speaker notes say something the slide does not
[ ] Visual opportunities marked
[ ] Cut list written
[ ] Read the titles alone - do they tell the story?
```

## Step 1: the setup

Ask for these in one short message rather than one at a time:

- **Topic, and the one thing the audience should remember.** If they cannot name it, that is the first thing to work out together.
- **The audience and what they already know.** A board, a team, a customer, a conference room of strangers. Their starting knowledge decides how much of the deck is context.
- **The slot.** Minutes available, and whether questions are inside or outside that number.
- **The goal.** Inform, persuade, teach, or get a decision. These produce genuinely different decks.
- **What happens after.** A decision in the room, a follow-up email, a document they keep. This tells you whether the deck must survive without the speaker.

If the user gives you two of these, build anyway and name the assumptions you made at the top of the outline.

## Step 2: the core message

One sentence, stating a position, not a subject.

- Weak: "An update on the hiring process."
- Strong: "The new hiring process cut time-to-hire by a third, and we should roll it out to the other two teams."

Put it at the top of the outline and check every slide against it. A slide that does not support, set up, or evidence that sentence goes on the cut list. If the user's material does not add up to a single sentence, say so before outlining. A deck cannot fix an argument that has not been made yet.

## Step 3: flows that work

Pick one. Mixing two flows is the most common reason a deck feels like it wanders.

| Flow | Shape | Best for | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem to solution | Problem, cost of it, solution, evidence, ask | Persuading, pitching | Spending so long on the problem the audience gets defensive |
| Before and after | How it was, what changed, how it is now, what next | Updates, retrospectives | No clear ask at the end |
| Steps | Step 1 to N, in order | Teaching, process rollout | Every step given equal weight when one step is the hard one |
| Story | Situation, complication, turning point, resolution | Keynotes, culture, customer stories | The point arriving too late for a short slot |
| Options and recommendation | Decision needed, options, comparison, recommendation, next step | Getting a decision | Presenting options you do not genuinely consider viable |
| Answer first | The answer, then why, then the detail | Senior audiences, short slots | Feeling abrupt if the audience does not know the context |

For anything under 10 minutes with a senior audience, default to answer first. Their patience runs out before your build-up does.

## Step 4: budget the slides

Decide the count before writing the slides. Two numbers matter: minutes, and whether the deck is presented or read.

- **Presented live:** roughly one to two minutes per slide including the talking. A 10-minute slot is 6 to 8 slides. A 30-minute slot is 15 to 20, with a section break every 5.
- **Sent to be read:** slides can be denser because the reader controls the pace, but each one still holds a single idea. Add the speaker notes as on-slide text or a written summary, because there is no speaker.
- **Reserve for questions.** If questions are inside the slot, budget a third of the time for them and cut slides accordingly.

Tell the user the count and the reasoning in one line: "8 slides for a 10-minute slot, leaving 3 to 4 minutes for questions."

## Step 5: one idea per slide, titles that state the point

The title carries the message. Someone who reads only the titles, in order, should get the argument.

| Topic title | Point title |
|---|---|
| Q3 Results | Revenue grew 12%, driven entirely by renewals |
| Our Process | The handoff between sales and delivery is where deals stall |
| Recommendations | Move the verification step to after signup |
| Next Steps | We need a decision on headcount by 14 March |

If a slide needs "and" in its title, it is two slides. If a slide has no point to state, it is a section divider or it is cut.

## Step 6: what goes on the slide and what goes in the notes

The slide is the evidence. The speaker is the argument.

**On the slide:** the point-stating title, plus one of the following: a number, a short list of three or fewer, one chart, one image, or one quote. Not all of them.

**In the speaker notes:** what the presenter says. Notes that repeat the slide are useless. Good notes carry the transition from the previous slide, the reason the number matters, the objection you expect, and the sentence you actually want remembered.

Write notes in the presenter's speaking voice, one to three sentences, so they can be read once and delivered from memory.

## Step 7: visuals and the cut list

Mark any slide where a chart, diagram, screenshot or demo carries the point better than words. Say what the visual should show, not how it should look. Colour, font and layout are not decided here.

End with a cut list: everything the user mentioned that did not make the deck, each with one line on why, and where it could go instead (the appendix, the follow-up email, or the answer to a question you expect).

## Example

**Input:** "A 10-minute update to leadership on our new hiring process. I want approval to roll it out to the other two teams. They know we ran a pilot, nothing more."

**Core message:** "The pilot cut time-to-hire from 41 days to 26 with no drop in quality, so we should roll it out."

**Flow:** answer first. Senior audience, short slot, they already know a pilot happened.

**Budget:** 7 slides for 10 minutes, leaving 3 minutes for questions.

> **Slide 1 - Time-to-hire fell from 41 days to 26 in the pilot**
> *On the slide:* the two numbers, large, with the pilot period underneath.
> *Say:* "Short version first: the pilot worked. Six roles, 26 days average against our 41-day baseline. I want to spend the next eight minutes on whether that result holds up, and then ask for a decision."
>
> **Slide 2 - Quality held: same offer-acceptance rate, same 90-day retention**
> *On the slide:* two comparison pairs, pilot against baseline.
> *Say:* "The obvious worry with a faster process is that we are lowering the bar. These are the two measures we agreed would tell us that. Both are flat."
>
> **Slide 3 - The saving came from one change: a single combined interview day**
> *On the slide:* the old five-stage timeline above the new three-stage one.
> *Say:* "This is the whole mechanism. We stopped scheduling four separate conversations across three weeks. Everything else stayed the same, which is why I think it transfers."
>
> **Slide 4 - It costs managers one focused day instead of four scattered hours**
> *On the slide:* one line of numbers - manager hours before and after.
> *Say:* "Expect this objection first. Total manager time actually falls, but it lands in one block, which is harder to schedule. Worth saying out loud before someone else does."
>
> **Slide 5 - Two teams, two very different hiring volumes**
> *On the slide:* the two teams with their open-role counts.
> *Say:* "I am not claiming this scales identically. Platform hires in bursts, Support hires continuously. The rollout plan treats them differently."
>
> **Slide 6 - The ask: approve rollout to both teams from 1 April, review in September**
> *On the slide:* the ask in one sentence, with the review date.
> *Say:* "This is the decision I need today. April start, September review against the same two quality measures."
>
> **Slide 7 - If we do nothing, we carry the 41-day average into the Q2 hiring push**
> *On the slide:* the Q2 open-role count against the current average.
> *Say:* "Close on the cost of waiting. Fifteen roles in Q2 at 41 days each is the alternative."

**Cut list:** the candidate-experience survey results (interesting, not decision-relevant, so offer it as an appendix slide); the recruiter tooling change (a separate ask, do not bundle it); the detailed stage-by-stage timings (answer to a question, keep in your pocket).

Notice that reading only the seven titles gives the whole argument, and that no speaker note repeats what is already on its slide.

## Rules

- One idea per slide. A title needing "and" means two slides.
- Titles state points. "Costs" is a label; "Costs fell 20% after the supplier change" is a title.
- Fewer words on the slide, more in the notes. If the audience is reading, they are not listening.
- No design decisions here. No colours, no fonts, no template talk.
- Recommend the shortest deck that achieves the goal, and say the slide count out loud.
- Never invent numbers, quotes or results to fill a slide. A slide with no evidence behind it becomes a question you cannot answer.
- Put the ask on its own slide, phrased as a decision with a date.
- If the material genuinely does not fit the slot, say so and propose what to cut rather than shrinking the font.

## Edge cases

- **The deck will be read, not presented.** Say so at the top of the outline and change the shape: notes become on-slide text or a short summary paragraph, and the first slide carries the whole argument because many readers stop there.
- **The topic is too big for the slot.** Name it before outlining and offer two options: narrow the message, or keep the message and move the detail to an appendix the audience takes away.
- **The user has slides already.** Outline what they should be, then map each existing slide to the outline: keep, merge, cut, or missing. Do not rewrite their deck slide by slide in place.
- **A mixed audience.** Ask who the decision-maker is and build for them. Add one context slide for everyone else rather than pitching the whole deck two levels down.
- **The goal is a decision but the user has no ask.** Stop and work out the ask first. A decision deck without a stated decision wastes the room's time.
- **There is no real evidence.** Build the outline with the evidence gaps marked as open questions and tell the user which slides will not survive a challenge.
- **Someone else will present it.** Write the notes as full sentences in their voice, add the expected objections, and note which slides depend on knowledge the presenter may not have.
- **A very short slot, three minutes or less.** Three slides at most: the point, the evidence, the ask. Anything else is a handout.

## Files

- `references/examples.md` - three full outlines worked end to end: a conference talk built as a story, a board update built answer-first, and a sales deck built around options and a recommendation. Read one before outlining to see how the flow choice changes every slide after it.

# Worked outlines

Three complete outlines, each using a different flow, from the raw ask to the cut list. Read one all the way down before building your own.

## Contents

- [Example 1: a 20-minute conference talk, built as a story](#example-1-a-20-minute-conference-talk-built-as-a-story)
- [Example 2: a board update, built answer-first](#example-2-a-board-update-built-answer-first)
- [Example 3: a sales deck that will be read, not presented](#example-3-a-sales-deck-that-will-be-read-not-presented)
- [What the three have in common](#what-the-three-have-in-common)

---

## Example 1: a 20-minute conference talk, built as a story

### The ask

"I am speaking at a regional operations conference. 20 minutes plus 5 for questions. My topic is how we cut warehouse picking errors. The audience runs warehouses of all sizes and has heard a hundred process talks."

**Core message:** "We halved picking errors by changing where the scanner lived, not by buying a new system."

**Flow:** story. The audience is fatigued by process talks, and the surprise in this material is the mechanism, so the shape should withhold it briefly rather than lead with it.

**Budget:** 12 slides for 20 minutes, with two of them holding for longer than a minute.

### The outline

> **Slide 1 - We were losing 40 hours a week to picking errors**
> *On the slide:* the number, and a photo of the returns desk.
> *Say:* "Every warehouse has a returns desk. Ours had two people on it full time, and neither of them was there because customers changed their minds."
>
> **Slide 2 - The errors were not where we assumed**
> *On the slide:* an error breakdown, four categories.
> *Say:* "We assumed new staff. Set up the audience's expectation here, because the data does not agree."
>
> **Slide 3 - Our most experienced pickers made the most errors**
> *On the slide:* error rate plotted against tenure.
> *Say:* "This is the slide to hold on. Let it sit. Ask the room what they think is happening before moving on."
>
> **Slide 4 - We spent four months solving the wrong problem**
> *On the slide:* the three failed interventions, one line each.
> *Say:* "Retraining, a new checklist, a bonus scheme. All three did nothing, and two made people angry. Say this plainly - the audience has tried the same three things."
>
> **Slide 5 - Then we watched a shift instead of reading the data**
> *On the slide:* one photo of a picker mid-aisle.
> *Say:* "Set up the turn. Twelve hours on the floor, one notebook."
>
> **Slide 6 - Experienced pickers left the scanner in the cart**
> *On the slide:* the observation, in one sentence.
> *Say:* "They knew the route. The scanner slowed them down. So it stayed in the cart and got used at the end, from memory."
>
> **Slide 7 - The fix was a wrist mount, not a system**
> *On the slide:* the mount, and its cost.
> *Say:* "Eleven pounds each. This is the punchline - do not oversell it, the number does the work."
>
> **Slide 8 - Errors fell 51% in six weeks**
> *On the slide:* the before-and-after, with the intervention date marked.
> *Say:* "Six weeks, no retraining, no software."
>
> **Slide 9 - It held for a year**
> *On the slide:* the same chart extended out twelve months.
> *Say:* "Address the obvious doubt. Most interventions decay. This one did not, and I think the reason is that it removed a step rather than adding one."
>
> **Slide 10 - Adding steps decays. Removing steps sticks.**
> *On the slide:* the sentence, alone.
> *Say:* "This is the transferable idea, and it is the one thing to remember from the talk."
>
> **Slide 11 - Where to look in your own operation**
> *On the slide:* three questions.
> *Say:* "Give them something to do on Monday: where do your best people quietly work around the process, and what does that tell you?"
>
> **Slide 12 - Watch a shift before you read a dashboard**
> *On the slide:* the closing line and contact details.
> *Say:* "Close on the method, not the mount. The mount is ours; the method is theirs."

**Cut list:** the full error taxonomy (too detailed for a talk, offer as a handout); the supplier selection story (a different talk); the cost-benefit model (one question you will be asked, so keep the number in your pocket rather than a slide).

**Why it is shaped this way:** the story flow only pays off if the turn on slide 6 is genuinely a surprise, so slides 2 to 4 build the wrong assumption deliberately and then break it. Slide 10 exists because a story without a transferable sentence is entertainment, and this audience needs to take something home.

---

## Example 2: a board update, built answer-first

### The ask

"Quarterly board update. I get 15 minutes and they will interrupt. Customer churn went up and I need to tell them, plus get sign-off on hiring two support engineers."

**Core message:** "Churn rose to 3.1% because of one segment, we know which one, and fixing it needs two support engineers."

**Flow:** answer first. A board interrupts; if the answer is on slide 6, they will never reach it.

**Budget:** 6 slides for 15 minutes, because interruptions will consume half the slot.

### The outline

> **Slide 1 - Churn rose to 3.1%, concentrated in one segment, and I am asking for two hires to fix it**
> *On the slide:* the three facts, as three lines.
> *Say:* "Whole update in one slide, then I will take it apart. If we run out of time, this is the slide that matters."
>
> **Slide 2 - The rise is entirely in accounts under 20 seats**
> *On the slide:* churn by segment, this quarter against last.
> *Say:* "Enterprise and mid-market are flat or improving. The whole movement is small accounts."
>
> **Slide 3 - Those accounts wait 31 hours for a first support reply**
> *On the slide:* first-response time by segment.
> *Say:* "This is the mechanism, and it is the slide the board should push on. Small accounts sit at the back of a single queue."
>
> **Slide 4 - Churn in that segment tracks response time with a one-month lag**
> *On the slide:* the two lines plotted together over 12 months.
> *Say:* "Correlation, not proof. Say that out loud before someone else does. But it has held for a year and it moved twice in both directions."
>
> **Slide 5 - Two support engineers, 140k fully loaded, against 380k of at-risk revenue**
> *On the slide:* the ask and the two numbers.
> *Say:* "The at-risk figure is the annual value of accounts in that segment currently past 24-hour response. It is not a projection of saved revenue."
>
> **Slide 6 - Decision today, hires in seat by June, measured in September**
> *On the slide:* the three dates.
> *Say:* "What I need from the room, and when you can hold me to it."

**Cut list:** the product roadmap update (they have it in the pack, do not present it); the NPS detail (available if asked); the competitor pricing analysis (unrelated to this ask, and it will derail the discussion).

**Why it is shaped this way:** slide 1 is the entire update because a board meeting can lose ten minutes to a single question. Slide 4 names its own weakness before the room does, which buys credibility for slide 5. The ask is on its own slide with a date, so the decision cannot dissolve into general agreement.

---

## Example 3: a sales deck that will be read, not presented

### The ask

"We send a deck after discovery calls. Nobody presents it. It goes to the person we spoke to and then to their finance lead, who we never meet."

**Core message:** "You are paying for three tools that overlap, and consolidating them costs less than the two you would keep."

**Flow:** options and recommendation. Two readers, one of whom only cares about the money.

**Budget:** 9 slides. Denser than a live deck, because the reader controls the pace and there is no speaker to add anything.

### The outline

Because nobody presents this, every speaker note becomes on-slide text. The outline marks that explicitly.

> **Slide 1 - Consolidating your three overlapping tools saves 26% and removes two vendor relationships**
> *On the slide:* the claim, the saving, and one line saying what the deck contains. No speaker note - this is the whole argument for a reader who stops here.
>
> **Slide 2 - What you told us on 14 March**
> *On the slide:* five bullets from discovery, in their words.
> *Written note:* proves you listened, and lets the finance lead see the brief they were not part of.
>
> **Slide 3 - Where the three tools overlap**
> *On the slide:* a capability grid, three columns, ticks where each tool covers a need.
> *Written note:* one sentence under the grid stating what it shows, because there is no speaker to say it.
>
> **Slide 4 - Option A: keep all three, renegotiate**
> *On the slide:* cost, effort, what it does not fix.
>
> **Slide 5 - Option B: consolidate onto your existing platform**
> *On the slide:* cost, effort, what it does not fix.
>
> **Slide 6 - Option C: consolidate onto ours**
> *On the slide:* cost, effort, what it does not fix. Same structure as A and B, same level of honesty.
>
> **Slide 7 - Side by side over three years**
> *On the slide:* one table, three options, four rows - year one cost, three-year cost, migration effort, risk.
> *Written note:* state the assumptions under the table. The finance lead will check them first.
>
> **Slide 8 - We recommend C, and here is where it is weakest**
> *On the slide:* the recommendation, plus two honest weaknesses.
> *Written note:* naming the weaknesses is what makes the rest of the deck credible to a reader who cannot ask questions.
>
> **Slide 9 - What happens next, and what it costs to find out**
> *On the slide:* a two-week paid pilot, its scope, its cost, and the date it can start.

**Cut list:** the company history slide (nobody reads it); the logo wall (moves to the appendix); the technical architecture diagram (send it to their technical lead separately, it means nothing to finance).

**Why it is shaped this way:** the second reader never met you, so slide 1 has to carry the argument alone and slide 7 has to survive a sceptical spreadsheet check. Options A and B are described with the same care as C, because a reader who spots a rigged comparison stops believing the whole deck.

---

## What the three have in common

1. The core message is one sentence with a position in it, written before any slide.
2. The flow was chosen from the audience and the slot, not from the material.
3. Reading the titles alone, in order, gives the argument.
4. The ask, where there is one, sits on its own slide with a date.
5. Each deck names its own weakest point before the audience can.
6. The cut list keeps the discarded material findable instead of losing it.