It’s best to think of your presentation as a full story, not just a collection of individual slides.  Likely seems obvious when not in the weeds of putting your presentation together, but is something that many forget as they work through their individual pages.  here are some quick, high-level steps to help you maintain a holistic view of your presentation:

  1. Do an audience analysis:  Who’s going to be in the room?  How do they like to learn and/or communicate?  What do you want to tell them?  What do they want to know from you?
  2. Find out how much time you have:  In general, 15 pages for 30 minutes is a decent guideline, unless you are working in an alternative presentation format (like Pecha Kucha or Ignite)
  3. Write an outline:  Top-line topics first, build in light detail as time permits
  4. Lay your pages out as a storyboard:  Make small notes on what page layouts you’d like (chart type, image type, etc)  You can do this in PPT directly
  5. Design your presentation:  Lots of ways to approach this!  Just remember that less is more.  If going to be large screen, less detail, larger font!
  6. Rehearse:  You’ll figure out if your slides really are in the right flow, if you have the right number of slides, etc.
  7. Edit:  Execute any necessary changes you found in your rehearsal
  8. Deliver:  Show time!
Following this game plan will help you produce a better presentation, every time!