In the next 10 minutes, i'm going to teach you how to build 90% of the powerpoint
slides you're ever going to need to build, especially if you work in a powerpoint-heavy
a career like consulting, finance, or strategy. One of our most requested video topics
is how to build popular powerpoint slides. So to prep for that, i recently went through
as many presentations as i could get my hands on, mostly from big-name consulting
firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, and i found something really interesting. Most
of these consulting firms tend to use the same slide layouts over and over. For example,
take a close look at this mckinsey slide, notice how it looks very similar to this
bcg slide, and this deloitte slide, and this oliver wyman slide. And it makes sense
if you think about it. Some of these consulting firms are turning out hundred, two
hundred page decks for their clients, so whatever they can do to streamline this
process, they're going to do it. So after a lot of searching, i've narrowed it down
to five slides that you can realistically use over and over again and save yourself
a ton of time. I'll show you what these slide layouts are, when to use them, and
how to build them really quickly. coming up.
Hey everybody, paul here from analyst academy where we teach powerpoint presentation
design and data visualization training to individuals and teams all around the world.
If that sounds like something your interested in make sure you check out our full
courses over at theanalystacademy.com We've also got a lot of great free stuff over
there, including a blog post where i list out all the presentations that i went through
in order to prep for this video. There's over 100 there, and they're all free. Make
sure you check it out. I'll leave a link down below. First slide on our list is what
i call the table slide. And just like it sounds, it's just a table on the slide.
This is actually a really obvious example. I'll show you some less obvious examples
here in a second, but a slide like this is really good for showing categories or
lists. Here's a slide for McKinsey and if you look closely, it's the exact same layout:
just atable. You got your main categories over here on the left and some supporting
text on the right. Here's one from oliver wyman. Again, categories on the left, supporting
details on the right. This is actually very common. You'll see icons on the left
to kind of bring those categories to life a little bit more and then bullet points
on the right. And sometimes you'll see it split into multiple columns. But in this
this case, you just got the category and the bullet points. Here's another one from
mckinsey. This time you don't have three rows, you only have two, but it's the same
layout. These also tend to be good when you have a mix of information, mostly qualitative,
sometimes a little bit of quantitative information, but you can't quite put that
quantitative information in a chart. So table layouts like this are really good,
very flexible, and really easy to build. Just start with a box, copy it over, and
then change the fill, outline, left-align it, bullet points, give it some black text
and some filler text here and then just copy this one over, and you can copy this
down as many times as you want. So if you're on a pc, hold the control and shift
key, put it, let's say, right there and then hit f4 to copy it. Again, this spacing
will be the same and now you have your basic table slide. If you want, you can kind
of add these column labels right here. I'll remove the bullet points, bold the text
to make it one font size bigger. And there you go. Next slide on our list is a chart
slide and really it's just a title on the top and a chart taking up the bulk of the
space on the slide. It sounds really simple, but it actually can be really effective.
Here's one from oliver wyman. It's just a basic multiple line chart, but it supports
the key message of the slide, which is in the title. Then this one from mckinsey,
same idea. Stacked column chart takes up the bulk of the space on the slide, and
then a title on the top slide like this are actually really good when you're trying
to make a very convincing point and when you have the data to do that, and it makes
sense that these would be popular at consulting firms, because a lot of what they're
doing is trying to convince their clients to make a decision, and charts are a good
way to do that. Here's one from roland berger. Notice how they put these supporting
details on the right. This is very common. You'll see a chart taking up most of the
space on the slide with some key insights or supporting details in the form of bullet
points over on the right. Here's another one. This one is from LEK. Chart takes up
most of the space, but you've got these supporting details on the right, and then
this last one is a little funny looking, but it's the exact same layout: column chart
on the left, supporting detail on the right. Obviously, building this slide is really
easy. You just got your title right here, make sure the key message goes there, and
then just add a simple chart. Of course, you can also add bullet points over here
to support the details of the chart, but you don't necessarily have to. The key is
make sure the message in the title is actually supported by the chart. You'd be surprised
how often people don't do that. The other really important thing with the chart slide
is you want to make sure the chart type matches the message. This is something we
talk about a lot in our data visualization for consultants course, but let me just
give you a quick summary. If you're trying to emphasize a trend or a pattern, use
a line chart. If you're trying to compare categories against each other, use a bar
chart. If you're trying to compare categories over time, use a column chart. If you're
trying to show the relationship between two variables, use a scatter plot, and if
you're trying to show what percentage one category makes up of a total, use a pie
chart, but usually you're better off skipping Pie charts. Before i get to the next
slide layout, let me take 30 seconds to tell you about the sponsor of this video,
which is Ampler. Ampler is a great tool that i've been using for a really long time.
But let me show you this really awesome feature that i promise you is going to blow
your mind. Here i am in the Ampler tab. If i just go into this section right here
and choose "insert from library", i can choose the slide layout that i want to add
to my presentation. So for example, let's say i go to "Header Horizontal" and i just
choose this one right here. Here we go. I've got a subtitle slide already put together.
I just need to fill in the details. I can build any type of slide. Look at this giant
library of slide layouts that they have and of course they have their charts feature
which makes chart building incredibly easy. Pick the chart i want, drag and drop
it here, and I'm good to go. Anyone who signs up for one of our advanced courses
gets a six-month subscription to ampler. But if you just want to try it out for a
month, see if you like it, then i'll include a link down below. Try it for a month.
It's absolutely free. There's no credit card required so make sure you check it out.
The next slide type on our list is actually one of my favorites and it's what i call
the subtitle slide. Basically it's a slide with the title on top, but then subtitles
that support that title and sections for each of those subtitles. Let me show you
what i mean. So here's a slide from LEK. The main title is on top, which has the
main message of the slide, but then that's split into these two subtitles. And underneath
each of these subtitles is content to support that subtitle. Sides like this are
really good for showing structure. Like when you need to show your audience how you
reached a certain conclusion, you can show them the main conclusion in the title
and then show them how that conclusion breaks down. In this BCG slide for example,
you've got the main title on top with these two subtitles. The chart supports this
subtitle, and then these different sections and bullet points support this subtitle.
Sometimes one subtitle flows into the other. Like in this bcg example. "Greatest
demand exists for personalization services..." as supported by this chart on the
left and then continued with the statement "...through both digital and physical
avenues", which is supported by this chart on the right. And by the way, notice how
they're using a bar chart to compare categories against each other. Of course, it
doesn't just have to be two columns, it can also be three or four, like in this example
from roland berger. The main difference between this and a table layout slide is
how the information flows from top to bottom, versus a table layout slide where it
flows from left to right, and is a little bit more categorical and there's less of
a logical connection. So building this slide is obviously very easy. So you just
start with the box right here. This can be your subtitle. Copy this over, make sure
it's in the middle of a slide, of course.
And then just copy these three down. So i'm holding ctrl + shift as i drag this down.
Then move these. Remove the fill, remove the outline, left-align this, align it to
the top. Change the text to black. Maybe put some bullet points in here. And there
you go. These aren't subtitles, of course this is supporting text. Or you're not
doing text, you can put a chart here. So i'm just going to delete this. Go to my
charts. Let's start with a clustered column chart.
And we'll put it right here. Easy peasy. Next slide on our list is what i call the
framework slide. It's kind of like a chart slide, but instead of a chart, you just
have a big framework right in the middle. This is really good when you're trying
to bring some organization to your deck and you're trying to lay out a framework
for the next few slides, or when you're trying to represent an idea or a concept,
and you need some sort of visual representation of that idea. Here's an example from
oliver wyman on the topic of addressing rising credit risk. It's just the main framework
in the middle with text to support the details of that framework. Or more classic
examples, like this one from LEK, and this one from pwc. My main advice with these
slides is to only include details that actually contribute to the message. It's really
tempting to put a whole lot of text and data and numbers and pictures and cool fancy
graphics on slides like this. Make sure you stay focused and only put the information
that's actually going to impact your message. The best way to build the slide is
actually probably just to find a template, either your company, or somewhere on the
internet, or use a tool like Ampler where you can go in and find a template. But
if you don't have that, microsoft actually makes it really easy. Go to insert then
to smartart and choose what best fits your message. Now, usually i wouldn't recommend
using smartart. Looks a little cliche, but if you absolutely have to, you can make
it look worthwhile. So after i've inserted right here, i'm just going to make it
smaller, move to the center, and the key here is to change the color. So just go
to change colors, find something that makes a little bit more sense. Next thing you'll
do while you're in the smart art design tab, go over to convert, and then convert
to shapes, and now it's just a group of different shapes that you can move around
and change however you need. The fifth and final slide is what i call a visual slide.
It's basically when you need to explain the details of something that exists in real
life. A lot of times this might be a map where you're highlighting different sections,
but it can also be a picture of something complicated, or a diagram of a piece of
machinery that you need to explain. A lot of times these slides end up in the appendix,
but they are really common, not so much in marketing slides, but in realistic client
presentations. You see a lot of these. Here's one from mckinsey. This one highlights
different areas around the globe. Another one from mckinsey, a little bit older,
same idea. It's a map and a picture of one of the cities. this one that explains
the mining process a little bit better, or this one from strategy& that looks a whole
lot better, but again, it's a map pointing to different places. And finally, this
one from bcg that explains the details of an animal safety officer's day-to-day operations.
These slides tend to be the ugliest of the bunch and actually are probably the easiest
to make, but they do play a key role. The important part with these slides is put
the main visual in the middle, and then just have these little call out boxes highlight
different parts of that visual. So whether that's a map or a photo, a diagram, something
else, don't overthink these slides. They don't need to be pretty. They just need
to actually explain the details of what's in your image. So make that your main focus.
With these text boxes, all i did was just change the shape fill to white, include
an outline, and then i just went to the shape options right here, shadow, and did
this one on the top left. That way it sticks out from the picture just a little bit
more. It's a little it easier to read. All right, that's going to do it for today's
video. I really hope you found it helpful. Let me know what other topics you want
us to cover. And if you have any suggestions, make sure you leave those down in the
comments. Make sure you check out your free one month subscription of ampler. And
of course, our courses over at the analyst academy.com. Thanks for watching.