How to Create Engaging Presentation Slides

I've built a lot of slides in 9 yrs at Google. Here are 9 practical tips I've learned: 1/ 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. Write your headlines first. Figure out your "flow." Don't flesh out your slides until you've nailed the storyline. This will save you hours of wasted effort later on. 2/ 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲. Most people have way too many slides. Cut it down. The less flicking around you need to do, the more attention you'll get, and the sharper your message will be. 3/ 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 "𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁" 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱. Most content is written with no bias towards action. They get presented — and then forgotten — since there's no implied next steps. Do the opposite. Think hard about your calls-to-action and articulate it well. 4/ 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆. Writing chronologically means you're burying the lead. You'll lose your audience quickly. Always lead with the conclusion instead. 5/ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀. Don't simply throw big numbers onto a slide and hope it'll impress. It won't work. Instead, help your audience out by thoughtfully benchmarking or indexing. 6/ 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆. Slides make it easy to get away with lazy thinking. So you often end up with colorful boxes with generic buzzwords, or bullet points with incomplete thoughts. Avoid this trap. Challenge yourself to articulate complete thoughts while still achieving brevity. 7/ 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗱𝘂𝗵" 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗹𝘆. Ask yourself if anyone would read what you wrote and go either "duh!" or "no sh*t!" If so, you're wasting people's time. Sharpen it until there's actual insight. 8/ 𝗕𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲. Your use of space always tells a story. Don't give disproportionate real estate to unimportant content. And vice versa. Otherwise you'll undermine yourself. 9/ 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 "𝗱𝘂𝗺𝗯" 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. Avoid littering your slides with corp-speak. Be straightforward whenever possible. Of course, this doesn't give you the right to ignore numbers or engage in generic platitudes. It just means that you find the simplest way to anchor your audience. Then you can back it up with detail. __ 𝗣.𝗦. Looking to nerd out a bit more? Grab the 50-page playbook I built for free: 🎯 hernglee.gumroad.com It's what I wish someone gave me at the start of my career. So I built it! __ 👋 Hi! I'm Herng, and I write about my learnings as a strategy manager at Google. Follow for more tips! ♻️ Reshare this post if it can help others!

How to create great MBB slides as a PRO (even if you’re not a designer) I’ve probably made over 10,000 slides in my career. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Rule, that technically makes me a slide master God. (Or maybe just someone who needs new hobbies.) But here’s the twist: I’m not a designer. I’m a lawyer by training. My natural design instincts are zero. And yet, I’ve learned to make slides that work, not because of fancy design skills, but because of a few simple principles that anyone can apply. Here’s how to make slides that actually work: 1. Always start with the message. Before adding any charts, graphs, or visuals, ask yourself: • What is the key takeaway? • How do I want the audience to react? • What elements best support this message? Tattoo this on your brain: A slide where the elements don’t support the message is a bad slide. Period. 2. Use a strong title and subtitle. Every slide needs a clear title that tells you what it’s about and a subtitle that provides the key insight. Example: • Title: “Global sales performance” • Subtitle: “North America drives 60% of growth” 3. Stick to simple and consistent layouts. A good slide should be easy to read at a glance. My go-to layouts: • One chart with commentary: Chart on the left, key takeaways on the right. • Two simple charts side by side: For comparing metrics or trends. • Three columns: When comparing options or showing steps, use three aligned boxes with short text. • Image and text pairing: Image on one side, the message on the other. Keep it simple. The art belongs in the museum, not on your slide. 4. Less is more with text • Bullet points, not paragraphs. • Short phrases, not long sentences. • If your slide looks like an essay, start over. 5. Alignment and precision matter. Nothing makes a slide look messier than poor alignment. • Align elements consistently. • Use symmetry wherever possible. • White space is not your enemy, clutter is. 6. Keep charts simple and actionable • Bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, stick to what works. • Always label axes and show units. • Highlight key data points. 7. The 5-second rule • Can you tell what the slide is about in 5 seconds? • Is the key insight crystal clear? • Would a stranger understand it instantly? The bottom line: If your slide doesn’t support your message, it’s just a distraction. And if your message isn’t clear, neither is your impact.

Want to make your audience SUFFER? Your guide to creating MOST BORING presentations: 1/ MORE is better ↳ Cram every slide with text ↳ Put EVERY single bullet on slide REALITY CHECK: When presenters do this, audiences: • Mentally check out within 2 minutes • Miss the key message entirely 2/ Tell, don't show ↳ Theory over examples ↳ Words trump visuals REALITY CHECK: Research shows audiences: • Retain only 10% of verbal info • Zone out during theory-only talks • Can't process walls of text 3/ Be a corporate robot 🤖 ↳ Remove all personality ↳ Perfection beats authenticity REALITY CHECK: Studies confirm: • Robotic speakers lose 70% of attention • Audiences crave human connection 4/ Test their memory ↳ Pack 20 ideas per section ↳ Make them guess takeaways REALITY CHECK: Brain science reveals: • People remember max 3-5 key points • Information overload kills learning 5/ Time slot? Ignore it! ↳ Go overtime ↳ Leave NO room for questions REALITY CHECK: Going overtime means: • Lost audience trust • Reduced impact 6/ Drown them in numbers ↳ Show ALL the data ↳ Context is overrated REALITY CHECK: Data overload causes: �� Mental shutdown • Lost message impact • Audience frustration 7/ Start with your life bio ↳ Start from birth ↳ List every achievement REALITY CHECK: Opening with bio means: • Lost first impression • Wasted attention span • Audience disconnection 8/ Slides lead, you follow ↳ Read every bullet point ↳ Turn your back to audience REALITY CHECK: This approach: • Kills audience engagement • Breaks eye contact • Shows lack of preparation 9/ Avoid all analogies ↳ Keep it complex ↳ Make it impossible to relate REALITY CHECK: Complex presentations: • Create mental barriers • Waste everyone's time 10/ Use the most boring intro ↳ Start with "Today we will discuss..." ↳ List all agenda items twice REALITY CHECK: Boring intros result in: • Immediate phone checking • Mental checkout 11/ Multiple messages everywhere ↳ Change topics randomly ↳ Maximum confusion encouraged REALITY CHECK: Message overload means: • Zero retention • Complete confusion • Lost audience trust 12/ Avoid all controversy ↳ State only obvious facts ↳ Keep it mind-numbingly safe REALITY CHECK: Playing it too safe: • Makes content forgettable • Kills learning opportunities 13/ Stick to the script ↳ Ignore audience reactions ↳ Push through no matter what REALITY CHECK: Ignoring audience cues: • Breaks connection • Ruins engagement 14/ Panic at "mistakes" ↳ Apologize profusely ↳ Point out every error REALITY CHECK: Constant apologizing: • Undermines credibility • Distracts from content 15/ Skip all examples ↳ Keep it theoretical ↳ Never get practical REALITY CHECK: No examples means: • Lost context • Zero relatability → Want to be memorable? Do the exact OPPOSITE → Your audience will thank you ♻️ REPOST to help your network get better with presentations 📌 Which of these mistakes have you suffered through recently?

Want your audience to remember nearly 6x more of your presentation? Then start leveraging a cognitive science principle called the Picture Superiority Effect. If people only hear information, recall hovers around 10% in 14 days. But if they both hear and see a compelling visual, recall jumps to 65%. That's a 550% increase! Why? Because of Dual Coding. Your brain stores information in two channels: auditory and visual. When both fire together, memory strengthens. You are not just telling… you are encoding. That is why in the LOUD & CLEAR framework from my book "Silver Goldfish," we share that visualization is not decoration. It is communication. Yesterday, outside Philadelphia, I led a presentation skills workshop for IKEA. Talk about preaching to the choir. Their catalogs and internal decks are masterclasses in visual storytelling. Big images. Clear focus. Minimal words. They understand that images move the message. So, here are two rules to apply immediately in your presentations: 1. Use powerful images. Emotion drives attention. Attention drives recall. 2. Make the image the entire slide. No clutter. No bullets. One idea. One visual. Lagniappe Tip: Use the Rule of Thirds Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid with two vertical and two horizontal lines over your slide. Where the lines cross each other creates four intersection points (aka the "Powerpoints"). Then... • Place the subject of your image on one intersection. • Anchor your text on the opposite side/corner. • Leave white space elsewhere. Your audience’s eye goes to the image first, then to the message. That sequencing improves comprehension and retention. Next time you build a deck, ask yourself: 👉 If I removed all the words, would the slide still tell the story? Because in presenting, people remember what they see… not what you said. #SilverGoldfish #PresentationSkills #Retention #DualCoding

Regardless of how great your ideas are in your virtual sales pitch, webinar, or team meeting… People are most likely checking their email, browsing social media, or working on other things while you present. How can you prevent that and actually get your audience to pay attention? Here are 4 of the most powerful techniques we use for our own virtual training courses: 1. Win the first five seconds According to research from the University of Toronto, people need only five seconds to gauge your charisma and leadership as a speaker. In virtual environments, this first impression is even more critical. To establish instant rapport: - Keep your posture open and inviting (avoid fidgeting, crossed arms, and closed-off postures) - Use open gestures that welcome the audience into your space - Gesture with your palms showing at a 45-degree angle - Speak with clear articulation and energy from the very first word The quickest way to lose your audience? Starting with tentative body language that signals you’re unsure or unprepared. 2. Design your presentation for virtual viewing When designing slides, assume varied viewing conditions. Design for the smallest likely device and the slowest likely Internet speed. Make your slides accessible by: - Using larger fonts (24-32pt) - Applying higher contrast colors - Limiting each slide to ONE clear idea - Adding more space between lines when using smaller text - Stripping excess content (you can provide additional information in a separate document) 3. Vary your delivery Our research shows the optimal length for linear presentations is just 16-30 minutes, while interactive ones can maintain engagement for 30-45 minutes. People’s attention will go through peaks and valleys during that time, so try these techniques to keep their attention: - Vary your speaking pace (faster to convey urgency, slower to express gravity) - Use intentional pauses to let key points land - Adjust your vocal tone (lower pitch for authority, higher for approachability) - Shift between slides, stories, and data at regular intervals Each change helps reset your audience’s attention and signals importance. 4. Build in structured interaction Don’t make your audience wait until the end of your presentation to interact. According to our research, presentations that incorporate audience engagement through polls, chat responses, or breakout discussions maintain attention longer. For the highest engagement: - Use a variety of interaction types throughout your presentation - Incorporate breakout rooms for small-group discussions - Switch modalities regularly to keep it interesting Remember: In virtual environments, you need to recreate the natural engagement that happens in person. Your virtual presentation success isn’t measured by perfection…it’s measured by action. Master these techniques and your audience won’t just pay attention, they’ll respond. #VirtualPresentations #CorporateTraining #WorkplaceLearning

A lot of designers approach presentation interviews by opening Canva or Figma and immediately trying to design the “perfect” deck. And then they wonder why it takes forever, feels chaotic, or never quite clicks. The solution is simple. Design the story before designing the slides. A strong presentation doesn’t start with visuals — it starts with structure. Here’s the outline I recommend to my clients for sharing any project: 1️⃣ Context & Company What does the company do, and who are their users and customers? What product are we talking about? What was your role? Give people enough background to understand the world you were operating in. 2️⃣ Problem What wasn’t working well? Why did this matter to the business and users? 3️⃣ Constraints Technical limitations, competing priorities, data gaps, cross-team dependencies — all the things that made the work challenging. 4️⃣ Process & Exploration How and what did you learn? What options did you consider? How did research and discovery shape your decisions? 5️⃣ Key Decisions Highlight a few moments where your judgment showed — the trade-offs, the “why this over that” thinking that hiring managers really need to hear. 6️⃣ Solution Give a demo of what you built. Walk through the final designs and explain the reasoning behind what you shipped. 7️⃣ Impact What changed in the business because of this? Talk about usage, adoption, revenue, clarity, speed, or reduced friction. 8️⃣ Learnings What you’d repeat, what you’d do differently, and what surprised you. Once this story feels clear, then build your slides. You’ll move faster, feel more confident, and spend far less time reworking the deck. A few additional tips that help almost everyone: ✅ Practice out loud early. Clarity comes from hearing yourself talk through it, not from polishing slides. ✅ Keep slides simple and visual. High-level bullets paired with clean visuals are plenty — slides should support your voice, not compete with it. ✅ Be conversational. A good presentation feels like walking a colleague through your work, not giving a performance. ✅ Focus on outcomes. Even small improvements or qualitative wins matter. If you get the story right, the rest becomes much easier — and your presentation becomes far more clear and memorable. Hope this helps! Let me know in the comments. #productdesign #uxdesign #designportfolio #uxcareers #designinterview #designhiring #designjobs

Imagine you've performed an in-depth analysis and uncovered an incredible insight. You’re now excited to share your findings with an influential group of stakeholders. You’ve been meticulous, eliminating biases, double-checking your logic, and ensuring your conclusions are sound. But even with all this diligence, there’s one common pitfall that could diminish the impact of your insights: information overload. In our excitement, we sometimes flood stakeholders with excessive details, dense reports, cluttered dashboards, and long presentations filled with too much information. The result is confusion, disengagement, and inaction. Insights are not our children, we don’t have to love them equally. To truly drive action, we must isolate and emphasize the insights that matter most—those that directly address the problem statement and have the highest impact. Here’s how to present insights effectively to ensure clarity, engagement, and action: ✅ Start with the Problem – Frame your insights around the problem statement. If stakeholders don’t see the relevance, they won’t care about the data. ✅ Prioritize Key Insights – Not all insights are created equal. Share only the most impactful findings that directly influence decision-making. ✅ Tell a Story, Not Just Show Data– Structure your presentation as a narrative: What was the challenge? What did the data reveal? What should be done next? A well-crafted story is more memorable than a raw data dump. ✅ Use Clean, Intuitive Visuals – Data-heavy slides and cluttered dashboards overwhelm stakeholders. Use simple, insightful charts that highlight key takeaways at a glance. ✅ Make Your Recommendations Clear– Insights without action are meaningless. End with specific, actionable recommendations to guide decision-making. ✅ Encourage Dialogue, Not Just Presentation – Effective communication is a two-way street. Invite questions and discussions to ensure buy-in from stakeholders. ✅ Less is More– Sometimes, one well-presented insight can be more powerful than ten slides of analysis. Keep it concise, impactful, and decision-focused. Before presenting, ask yourself: Am I providing clarity or creating confusion? The best insights don’t just inform—they inspire action. What strategies do you use to make your insights more actionable? Let’s discuss! P.S: I've shared a dashboard I reviewed recently, and thought it was overloaded and not actionably created

Think PowerPoint gives you the POWER in presentations? Think again. We often approach presentations with the mindset that we, the presenters, are the stars of the show. But here's a game-changing perspective: The audience is the true hero of the story. Our role? We're the mentors guiding them on their journey. So, what does it mean to be a mentor through your presentation? Here are a few key points to consider: 1. Teach something new: If your audience is investing time to listen to you, make sure they leave having learnt something new/valuable. 2. Deliver value: Every slide, every word should add value. Ask yourself, “What’s in it for the audience?” and tailor it to their interests. 3. Help improve their lives: Whether it’s small or large changes, leave your audience better off than they were before your presentation. 4. Engage and connect: Cultivate a connection through storytelling. You can do so through interactive elements & empathy. 5. Visual appeal: Use vivid design and branding elements to enhance your message. Visuals should support the narrative, not overshadow. Next time you build a presentation, remember ONE thing: It’s all about them. Shift your focus from showcasing your own expertise— To empowering your audience with the tools, knowledge, and inspiration THEY need to succeed. How will you MENTOR your audience in your next presentation? Share!

Most presentations are built completely backwards. You open your slide deck and start piecing something together that sounds close enough to a comprehensible narrative. You take shortcuts because you know there will be a prompter or you can read your notes on the virtual call. But, If you want to be persuasive, if you want your team to feel part of something bigger than themselves, you need to put your slides down and start designing an experience. This takes time, thought, and actual care. Not last-minute and rushed formatting energy. Here are four shifts I want you to try: 👉 ONE: Put your slides away. Close the deck. Yes, really. Slides are support. They are not strategy. They are not meaning. When you start with visuals, you start decorating before you know what the room actually needs. You end up solving layout problems instead of communication problems. 👉 TWO: Get clear. Why this talk. Why now. Why these people. 👉 THREE: Design for the person with the least context in the room. Your audience is never one type of human. You have different learners. You have experts. You have new people. You have customers. You have folks who are pretending to understand and hoping no one calls on them. Ask yourself, who in this room has the least background on this topic, and how is this landing for them? This is not about watering anything down. It is about being concise and intentional. It is about cutting the extra language, the internal shorthand, the industry speak that makes you sound smart but leaves half the room behind. When you do this well, the experts still feel respected and everyone else can actually track with you. That is how trust gets built. 👉 FOUR: And this is a biggy, get your audience involved in the content! Not just emotionally. Actually involved. Yes, people should see themselves in your stories. That is step one. Step two is participation. Are you asking real questions or just talking at them? Are they turning to each other at any point? Are they thinking, choosing, reacting? Are you showing something in action instead of explaining it to death? Engagement is not just being charismatic at the front of the room. It is shared experience. When people do something with you, even something small, the message lands in their body, not just their notes. A presentation is not a slide deck with a human attached. It is a live moment with actual people. Treat it like that, and your talks stop feeling like information and start feeling like something worth being in the room for. Nobody want to be talked at anymore. People want community. What are you doing to build this? #publicspeaking #meaning #leadership #presentations #engagement

Think about the last presentation you sat through. Do you remember anything from it? Probably not. Most presentations fail because they are: ❌ Overloaded with bullet points ❌ Devoid of emotion ❌ Data dumps with no clear story The good news? You can make your presentation unforgettable with these 7 simple shifts: 1. Start with a Hook, Not an Intro Most presenters begin with "I'm excited to be here today..." and lose the audience immediately. Fix: Grab attention from the start. Example: “Your company is losing $10M a year—and you don’t even know why.” 2. Tell a Story, Not Just Data People remember stories, not statistics. Instead of listing facts, wrap them in a compelling narrative. Fix: Use the “Problem → Struggle → Solution” technique. Example: "Before using our system, Sarah’s team spent 3 hours a day on reports. She tried different tools, but nothing worked—until she found our solution. Now? Just 15 minutes a day." 3. Use Contrast & Surprise The brain is wired for novelty. If your presentation sounds predictable, people will tune out. Fix: Vary your tone, pace, and visuals. Drop in an unexpected question, statistic, or pause to keep them engaged. 4. Say Less, Mean More Too much information overloads the audience. They’ll remember nothing. Fix: Cut the fluff. Stick to one core message per slide, per section, per speech. 5. Make It Visual Bullet points don’t inspire. Images and metaphors do. Fix: Instead of saying “Our product is faster,” show a race car next to a bicycle. 6. End with a Bang, Not a Fizzle Most presentations end with “Thank you” and no real impact. Fix: Leave them with one key idea and a clear next step. Example: “If you only take away one thing today, let it be this…” 7. Master the Pause Most speakers talk too fast and leave no room for ideas to sink in. Fix: Silence is power. Pause after key points to let them land. 💡 A great presentation isn’t about information—it’s about transformation. Make your next one impossible to forget. What’s the most memorable presentation you’ve ever seen? Drop a comment below! ⬇