That afternoon, she vents to Marco, the head of product design. Marco is known for decks that get things approved on the first try. He doesn’t use fancy templates; his slides look almost too simple. He agrees to a “deck autopsy.”
Marco holds up a slide for three seconds, then covers it. “What did you see?”
She doesn’t read bullet points. She speaks to each slide’s assertion, then uses the visual as evidence. She finishes in 9 minutes. The ask slide is clear: $500k, 3 engineers, 8 weeks.
Effective decks respect that attention spans are measured in heartbeats. Every element must earn its place. Sarah learns to delete any chart that requires more than five seconds to explain. That afternoon, she vents to Marco, the head
For his revised version: “A giant green arrow pointing up, then a red circle around ‘Q4.’”
Over the next two weeks, Marco teaches Sarah the five core practices that turn a dead deck into a living pitch.
Marco opens her Gray Deck and asks one question: “If you could only keep three slides, which would they be?” He agrees to a “deck autopsy
Sarah calmly clicks to the appendix: “Technical risk: moderate. Mitigation: we already have the core API built.” (She didn’t put that in the main deck—it would have muddied the story.)
The Gray Deck’s slides were lists: • Lower CAC • Higher LTV • Faster deployment
Sarah, a senior marketing manager at a mid-sized tech firm. She is smart, knowledgeable, and has a problem: her brilliant ideas keep getting rejected. She finishes in 9 minutes
The next morning, during the pitch to the executive team, the reaction is brutal. Five minutes in, the CEO starts checking his phone. The CFO squints at a complex waterfall chart and asks, “What am I looking at?” By slide 12, the COO interrupts: “Sarah, just tell me what you want me to do.” The project is put “on hold” (corporate for dead ).
The CFO leans in.
“Where did all the data go?” Sarah panics.
She clicks to Slide 1: (A simple line chart showing their share dipping, a rival’s rising.)
The COO nods. “I’ve seen enough. Approved. Get it done.”