📊 Giving a presentation: checklist

The slides are the last thing to build, not the first. Structure and rehearsal do most of the work; the deck just has to stay out of the way of it.

20 items

1. One sentence for what you want the audience to do differently afterIf a talk doesn't change a decision or an action, it's information that could have been an email.
2. The audience's actual level checked, not assumedA room of experts and a room of newcomers need a completely different first three slides.
3. The structure decided before a single slide is designedAn argument built in slides instead of words tends to wander, and it shows.
4. Each slide reduced to one ideaA slide with three ideas on it gets read instead of listened to, and the audience is now reading instead of hearing you.
5. Text kept to what can be read in five secondsAnything longer competes with your voice instead of supporting it.
6. Numbers rounded and the source statedA number nobody can trust undoes everything said around it.
7. A rehearsal out loud, not just read silently in your headReading in your head always feels shorter and smoother than it is out loud.
8. Timed once, properly, with a clock running
9. The likely questions anticipated, with an answer ready for each
10. The obvious objection
11. The question about budget or resourcing
12. The file tested on the actual machine and screen it'll be shown onFonts, colours and video move or disappear entirely between machines. Check it on the one you'll actually use.
13. A backup of the file kept in two placesA memory stick, an email to yourself, and the cloud — pick at least two, because the room's wifi is not one of them.
14. Adapters and cables checked for the actual roomThe one adapter you didn't bring is always the one the room needs.
15. Arrival early enough to test the room, not just find itScreen, sound, slide advance and lighting — checked with time to fix something, not just to discover it broken.
16. Water within reachA dry mouth thirty seconds in is entirely avoidable and completely derailing.
17. A plan for the ten minutes before, rather than scrolling or rereading notes for the first timeThat window either steadies you or unsettles you further. It rarely does nothing.
18. An opening line rehearsed word for wordThe first sentence is the one nerves are most likely to mangle. Knowing it cold gets you into the rest.
19. A closing line that actually signals the end"So, yeah, that's it" undoes a good talk in its last five seconds. Plan the last line as deliberately as the first.
20. Feedback asked for from one honest person afterwardsNot "how did it go" — ask what specifically to change next time.