- In this video, we're gonna break down
a real consulting slide from Bain and Company.
I'll talk about how they structure design
and format the slide in a way that makes the insights clear.
Also talk about the tricks they use
that you might not notice right away
but that make the slides so incredibly persuasive
and make sure you stick around to the end
because we got a whole lot of great stuff to cover.
(upbeat music)
Hi everyone, Paul here from The Analyst Academy,
where we've taught thousands of people all around the world
how to build consulting style presentations.
Much like the one we'll be reviewing today.
If you're serious about your side building skills
and wanna learn how to build clear engaging
and persuasive presentations,
like what you might see
at a top tier consulting firm like McKinsey, Bain, or BCG,
then check out one of our full courses at
theanalystacademy.com.
We've also got some great free stuff there
including our top 50 PowerPoint shortcuts cheat sheets.
So be sure to check that out as well.
The slide we're covering today
is from a presentation called 2011
China luxury market study.
Which you can download for free on Bain's website,
and we'll include a direct link to the presentation below.
All right, here we go.
The first and most important thing to notice
about this slide is the title,
which is the most important part
of any data heavy slide like this one.
So, let's read it.
Greater than 60% of growth in 2011,
continued to come from new customers,
however share from existing customers improved.
And there's two things they've done here
that are really critical.
Number one, they've written the title
out in a full sentence,
instead of using the title
to introduce just the topic of the slide,
they've spelled out the insight clearly and with detail.
In other words,
rather than just writing something like customer growth,
they've told you exactly what they want you to know
and what they want you to take away from the slide.
And the second critical thing they've done,
is to make sure the title is a full summary of the slide.
And this follows the idea of the pyramid principle,
which States that,
when you communicate something you wanna start
with the highest level idea first,
then break that idea into its component parts.
The title is the conclusion or the main point of the slide,
and the rest of the slide makes up the supporting details
and data of the main point.
By communicating this way,
you wanna make it as easy as possible for the audience
to understand your main idea.
Not only can they understand your main message
within the first few seconds of viewing the slide,
but once they read the title,
they'll know how to read
and interpret the rest of the information on the slide.
For example, once they look at this chart,
which is the main centerpiece of the slide,
they'll already know to look for this data point
that they saw in the title,
about more than 60% of growth in 2011,
coming from new customers.
But if they didn't read the title first,
they might be trying to figure out what the chart is saying
or what they're supposed to even get out of it.
We actually did a full video,
all about the pyramid principle and why it really matters
when it comes to presentation building.
So, be sure to check that out if you're interested.
Now, let's talk about the chart,
which is obviously a main focus of this slide.
Unless you're disciplined and you read the title,
it's probably where your eyes will go first.
So for Bain,
it's really important to get the details right
and to help the audience see the insights.
It's just a basic waterfall chart
that shows the total amount of spending
in the China luxury market in 2009, 2010 in 2011.
But it puts an emphasis
on what's causing the change from year to year.
From 2009 to 2010, for example,
33% of new growth came from existing customers.
And 67% came from new customers.
Then from 2010 to 2011, 37% came from existing customers.
And 63% came from new customers.
And this is great
because this is exactly what they're trying to show.
Notice the connection with the message and the title.
And this is very important.
The main takeaway is not about the total market size
or even about the size of the growth from year to year.
It's about where the growth is coming from.
By using a waterfall chart
they can isolate these two categories,
growth from existing customers
and growth from new customers.
The type of chart you choose
really does have an impact on your message
and the overall clarity of your slide.
Think about what this might have looked like
with a different type of chart.
Like say a stacked column chart.
Can you still see the insight?
Of course, especially with this bright red color.
But when you turn it into a column chart,
the focus becomes the height of each of these columns,
or in other words,
the focuses on the total market size
and how it's growing overall.
Or remember, that's not the message,
the message is on where the growth is coming from,
which gets emphasized when they use a waterfall chat.
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Another thing that's great
about this chart is the use of color.
If used a bright red color on the most important columns
and then a less important,
but still noticeable dark gray
on the other important columns.
And for the columns that aren't really a focus
they've used the most boring and non-obvious color of gray,
so it almost blends into the background.
And this brings up another really important principle.
Which is that you don't want your audience
to go searching for the important information on your side.
You wanna guide them as much as possible.
And one way to do that obviously is with color.
Red is the most attention grabbing color here,
but notice what they've made red on the slide.
These columns, which are very important part of the message,
this bar on top, which brings attention to the title,
the most important part of the slide.
And then the only other thing that's red on the slide
is their logo down here at the bottom.
And even that is really tiny.
And then that's it.
In fact, not only is that the only red on the slide,
it's really the only color on the slide
besides this black and this gray,
because they know they only have
so much of your mental attention.
So, they really wanna guide you to what matters the most.
As you're building your slide it's easy to forget
that you've already looked at the data many times
and that you know what the key insights are.
But your audience is likely looking
at your slide for the first time.
Out on top of this, that in a live presentation,
there'll be simultaneously trying to listen to the speaker,
read the words and numbers on the slide,
and think of something to say, to add to the discussion.
Even for a smart person it's a lot to process all at once.
So, you wanna do whatever you can
to make finding the insights quick and easy.
Even stuff that seems small like using standout colors
where they matter the most,
is really gonna make a difference.
All right, now let's read through
some of the texts on the slide.
Over here on the right,
you have a section called the key insights.
I like that they've kept the symbol here
and made it obvious for me.
They're taking the data in the chart one step further
and helping me understand why it's growing the way it is.
Because new stores are opening,
and because we're also seeing
performance improvements at the store level.
They've kept the text short and to the point,
which again is going to help me and my overloaded brain
understand the key points.
Then they've got some nice quotes down here
which can be powerful on a slide like this
because it brings a personal element to the data.
And it provides a different way of understanding insights
that isn't numbers or consultant created bullet points.
My criticism with this section though
is the overuse of bolded text.
Bolded text is great because just like the use of colors,
it can help direct the audience's attention.
But when you use it too much, it sort of loses its value.
They've highlighted portions of the bullet points,
which is great,
but then they've bolted both quotes completely.
A much better use of bolded texts
would have been to highlight
a couple of important words in the quotes.
With them being fully bolded,
I'm just tempted to skip over the quotes completely
as I'm scanning the slide,
because it feels like too much work to read them.
To give the court's attention what they could have done,
is just put a simple box behind them.
Even just a light gray box.
That way I know that they're different
from these bullet points,
but they don't command so much attention
that they're distracting.
Overall though, I think it's a pretty great slide
and it's very effective.
All right, that's gonna do it for this breakdown,
I hope you found it helpful.
If you have any specific questions
be sure to let me know down in the comments.
And if you're interested in more stuff like this,
make sure you stay connected with us here on YouTube
and on our other social media channels,
which I'll link to below.
And if you're really serious about learning
how to build your own high quality consulting style slides,
check out one of our courses at theanalystacademy.com.
All right, thanks again for watching and best of luck.
(upbeat music)