How I redesigned 3 McKinsey slides (and made them better!)

Summary

In this video, Paul from Analyst Academy demonstrates how to enhance presentation slides from a prestigious consulting firm, focusing on improving slide flow, removing distractions, and emphasizing key messages. He critiques and revises three slides, addressing issues like unnecessary images, chart clarity, and title prominence. Techniques such as adjusting text size, reorganizing content, and using color strategically are employed to make the slides more audience-friendly and visually appealing.

Takeaways

• 📈 Paul, an instructor at Analyst Academy, critiques slides from a prestigious consulting firm to demonstrate how to enhance presentation slides.
• 🔍 The first slide analyzed is from McKinsey about the mining industry, discussing the potential for technology to increase productivity and revenue.
• 🗑️ Distractions such as unnecessary images should be removed to keep the audience focused on the message.
• 📐 The flow and structure of slides should support a top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading pattern, which aligns with how people typically read.
• 🔑 Titles should be prominent, using size and boldness to command attention and set the context for the rest of the slide.
• 📊 Legends in charts can be confusing and may be better presented directly next to their categories for easier understanding.
• 📝 Text-heavy slides can be made more readable by formatting text to guide the audience's eye through the information.
• 🎯 Emphasize key data points by adjusting font sizes and making the most important information stand out.
• 🧩 For complex slides with much text, consider using icons or other visual elements to break up the content and aid comprehension.
• 🌐 The second slide reviewed deals with global goods and data flows, focusing on recommendations for digitalization.
• 📋 Recommendations should be clear and concise, avoiding clutter, and guiding the audience through the content logically.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video presented by Paul?

The main focus of the video is to demonstrate how to improve the effectiveness of presentation slides by enhancing clarity, reducing distractions, and improving the overall flow and structure.

What is Analyst Academy and what do they offer?

Analyst Academy is an educational platform where Paul is an instructor. They teach people and teams how to build better presentations based on best practices from the consulting industry, offering courses at TheAnalystAcademy.com.

Why does Paul suggest removing the picture from the first slide?

Paul suggests removing the picture from the first slide because it does not contribute to the slide's message and serves only as a distraction for the audience.

What is the issue with the original title of the first slide according to Paul?

The issue with the original title of the first slide is that it is not large or bold enough to command attention, which is crucial for the audience to grasp the overall message of the slide.

How does Paul address the problem of the legend distracting from the main message on the first slide?

Paul moves the legend closer to the chart it refers to and suggests simplifying it by placing labels directly next to the categories in the chart to reduce cognitive load on the audience.

What change does Paul make to the text size and emphasis in the column chart on the first slide?

Paul changes the text size by making the font for the less important numbers smaller and the font for the number that connects with the title bigger to emphasize the main message.

Why does Paul recommend adjusting the alignment and formatting of text on the slides?

Paul recommends adjusting the alignment and formatting of text to improve readability and ensure that the audience's attention is directed appropriately according to the slide's message.

What is the main challenge Paul identifies with the second slide about goods and data flows?

The main challenge with the second slide is that it has a straightforward list of recommendations but lacks visual appeal and clarity, which can make it difficult for the audience to process the information.

How does Paul improve the visual structure of the second slide?

Paul improves the visual structure of the second slide by removing the gradient fill, adjusting the size and boldness of the title, and spacing out the recommendations to make them more readable.

What is the key message that Paul wants the audience to focus on in the third slide about the mining industry?

The key message that Paul wants the audience to focus on in the third slide is the expectation of a 4% revenue growth due to companies planning for the future with technology in mind.

How does Paul simplify the third slide to reduce visual clutter?

Paul simplifies the third slide by removing unnecessary lines and callouts from the chart, adjusting the legend to be more intuitive, and clarifying the distinction between historical and projected data.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Improving McKinsey's Mining Industry Slide

In the first paragraph, Paul from Analyst Academy critiques a McKinsey slide on the mining industry's technological advancements. He suggests enhancing the slide's clarity by removing a non-contributing picture, adjusting the title's size and boldness for better attention, and reorganizing content for a smoother top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading flow. He also recommends simplifying the chart's legend by placing it directly next to the categories it represents, thus reducing cognitive load on the audience.

05:01

🔍 Refining a Global Goods and Data Flows Slide

The second paragraph discusses a slide detailing recommendations for digitalization in global goods and data flows. Paul recommends making the title more prominent by enlarging and bolding it, and clarifying the slide's purpose by adjusting the legend to only apply to specific recommendations. He also suggests removing unnecessary fill colors and spacing out the content for better readability. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on simplifying the slide by reducing text and using visual elements to guide the audience's focus.

10:01

🚀 Streamlining a Slide on Technology's Impact on Revenue

Paragraph three focuses on a slide about the future of the mining industry with an emphasis on technology and revenue growth. Paul advises removing a distracting photo and simplifying the slide's visual elements to avoid overwhelming the audience. He suggests reducing the number of lines in the chart to focus on the key message of a 4% revenue growth and improving the slide's readability by adjusting the legend and labels to clearly distinguish between historical and projected data.

15:05

📊 Enhancing a Line Chart for Clearer Insights

In the final paragraph, Paul discusses the importance of choosing the right chart type to convey the message effectively. He commends the use of a line chart for showing trends over time but points out the need for better differentiation between historical and projected data. He introduces a simple visual cue to indicate the transition from past to future and suggests minor adjustments to the slide's layout and labeling for improved clarity and visual appeal.

Keywords

💡Consulting Firm

A consulting firm is a professional services business providing expert advice in a particular area. In the context of the video, the consulting firm is depicted as a prestigious company, likely referring to its high standing in the industry for providing strategic and management consulting services. The video aims to improve slides from such a firm, indicating the importance of effective communication even for well-established entities.

💡Slide

In the video, a slide refers to a single page or screen in a presentation, typically used to convey key points or data visually. The script focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of these slides by improving their design and content, which is crucial for clear communication during presentations, especially in a consulting context where clarity and persuasiveness are paramount.

💡Flow

Flow in the context of the video pertains to the logical sequence and arrangement of content on a slide, which should guide the viewer's eye in a natural reading path. The video emphasizes improving the flow by organizing elements to enhance readability and ensure that the message is conveyed efficiently, as seen in the suggestion to rearrange elements to support a top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading pattern.

💡Distraction

A distraction, as mentioned in the video, is any element on a slide that diverts the audience's attention away from the main message. The video provides an example of removing a non-contributory picture to reduce distractions, highlighting the importance of focusing the audience's attention on the core content and message of the presentation.

💡Title

The title of a slide serves as a summary of the slide's content and is crucial for setting the context for the audience. In the video, the title's prominence is discussed in terms of size and boldness to command attention and ensure that it is read first, which is essential for the audience to understand the slide's主旨 before delving into the details.

💡Chart

A chart in the video represents a visual representation of data, used to support the message or point being made. The video discusses the importance of charts in conveying complex information succinctly and effectively. It also touches on the decision to use a single column chart over a line chart to avoid suggesting a trend that isn't the focus of the message.

💡Legend

In the context of the video, a legend is a key used to explain the symbols or colors used in a chart. The video suggests that legends can sometimes confuse the audience by requiring them to switch their attention between the legend and the chart. An example given is the removal or relocation of a legend to simplify the slide and reduce cognitive load on the audience.

💡Estimate

An estimate in the video refers to a projection or approximation of data, often used in consulting to convey potential outcomes or scenarios. The script discusses how to visually distinguish between low and high estimates in a chart to align with the title's message, emphasizing the need for clarity in presenting such projections to an audience.

💡Digitalization

Digitalization in the video refers to the process of converting information into a digital format, often as part of a broader strategy to improve efficiency and innovation. The term is used in the context of recommendations that are enablers for digitalization, highlighting the video's focus on the transformative impact of digital technologies in various industries.

💡Recommendations

Recommendations in the video are suggestions or advice provided as part of a consulting report or presentation. The script discusses the presentation of these recommendations, emphasizing the need to make them clear and visually distinct to guide the audience's attention and to spark further discussion or action.

💡Takeaway

A takeaway in the context of the video is a key message or point that the presenter wants the audience to remember after the presentation. The video discusses the placement and emphasis of the takeaway box on a slide, suggesting that it should not be the primary focus but rather a conclusion or call to action that follows the main content.

Highlights

Paul from Analyst Academy aims to improve slides from a prestigious consulting firm.

The first slide is from McKinsey about technology's impact on the mining industry.

The initial slide has a clear message but could improve in flow and by removing distractions.

A non-contributing picture is removed to enhance the slide's focus.

The slide's content is rearranged to support a top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading flow.

The title is made bolder and larger to command more attention.

The legend is moved closer to the chart to reduce distraction from the title.

Icons are introduced to make the text-heavy slide easier to read.

The second slide focuses on global goods and data flows with a list of recommendations.

The title and legend are adjusted for clarity and to improve the slide's visual appeal.

The recommendations are split into sections to enhance readability.

Visual elements are added to guide the audience's focus to key parts of the slide.

The third slide discusses future planning in the mining industry with technology.

The slide is simplified by removing unnecessary visual elements and lines.

A line is added to distinguish between historical and projected data on the chart.

The legend is redesigned to be more intuitive and connected to the corresponding chart lines.

Final adjustments are made for clarity and visual appeal, including aligning text and labels.

The video concludes with a call to action to check out Analyst Academy's courses for more presentation skills.

Transcripts

I took three slides from the most prestigious consulting firm, maybe the

most prestigious company in the world, to see if I can make them even better.

In this video, I'm gonna walk through exactly what I did, why I did it,

and why I think you can do the same thing to improve your own slides.

Hi everybody.

My name is Paul and I'm an instructor at Analyst Academy.

We teach people and teams how to build better presentations based on best

practices from the consulting industry.

So if that sounds like something you're interested in, make sure you check out

our courses at TheAnalystAcademy.com.

A quick disclaimer before I get started.

All of the slides that I use today are from publicly available sources, so

if you're interested in looking at the original slide, make sure you check

those out in the links down below.

All right, so let's take a look at our first slide.

This is a slide from McKinsey about the mining industry, and the title

says "Successful implementation of technology could generate up to 22%

of additional value from productivity improvement for all stakeholders."

So essentially what they're saying is by improving these different technologies,

we can increase revenue, which is a pretty straightforward message, and

there's enough content on the slide to support that message really well.

But where I think the slide could be improved is in the overall flow

and also in removing distractions.

So, for example, the very first thing that I think has to be removed is

this terrible picture right here.

It doesn't contribute to the slides message, it just distracts the

audience, and that's kind of the risk.

With photos.

Sometimes they can make the slide look prettier, and they do have their place on

occasion, but in general, they distract the audience and if it's not contributing

to your message, it should be removed.

So the very first step I took was to take out this photo.

Then the next thing is just with the overall flow and structure of the slide.

Generally people read your slides from top to bottom and then from left to right.

So you wanna set up your content in a way that kind of supports that flow.

And in general, they've done that pretty well.

So they've got a nice title here at the top.

Then the content.

The content then flows over to this chart right here, and they kind of support

that with these arrows right here.

Overall pretty good.

But where I think it needs to be improved is with the title first.

So you want your audience to read the title first so that they can grasp the

overall message of your slide, and then it puts the rest of the details in context.

But the problem here is the title's not big enough and it's not bold.

So first step I took was to just make this title a little bit bigger

and a little bit bolder just so it commands a little bit more attention.

The second thing is, I noticed there's quite a bit, it's

sort of scrunched right here.

You've got the title up top right here, and then this text right

here is pretty close in size.

It's pretty close to together and it makes it a little bit

harder to read the title first.

You don't want people to get distracted.

So there's a couple things we can do about this.

The first is this gray section, right here.

Only applies to the chart way over here.

I move that over, so that frees up a little bit of space, right?

The next thing I did was to take this legend and put it closer to the chart

because there's nothing above this line right here that the legend applies to.

So it's just gonna be distracting people from the title.

Take that legend, move it down here.

And the other thing is actually, in most cases, and especially in this case,

you don't necessarily need a legend.

When you create a legend for your charts, what you're doing is you're asking the

audience to look at the legend, then back to the chart, then back to the legend to

try and understand each of the categor.

It's too much work for the brain and it's unnecessary.

So in this case, what I did right here is just put them right next to their actual

categories, High estimate, low estimate.

Much easier to read.

All right, so let's now take a look at the actual content, the main part of the

slide, which is this section right here.

There's a lot of text and having text on your slide isn't necessarily bad.

I think especially in slides like this, you get a lot of text heavy slides

because there's a lot of information that needs to be communicated.

But there are ways that we can make this a little bit easier

for the audience to read.

And overall it is a pretty good chart.

I debated for a while here kind of separating this into.

Column chart like this where you've got your low estimate and your high estimate.

But the problem with a chart like that is it's gonna suggest that there's kind of

this increase over time from low to high.

And that's not the message we're trying to communicate.

We're trying to portray that there's two situations, a low estimate

and a high estimate for a total potential improvement of 22%.

So actually, I think this kind of single column chart does this pretty well.

If you have more suggestions for this, I'd love to hear your thoughts down in the.

But one thing that I think can be improved with this column chart is there's kind

of this equal focus on this number, this number, and this number, and that just

is, that doesn't really fit with the message we're trying to communicate.

The most emphasis should be on this number right here, because that's

what connects with the title.

So an easy fix for that is just to make the font for these a little bit

smaller and make this one bigger and.

And already, I think that looks a whole lot better.

This part of the slide is much cleaner.

It's much more focused and easier to understand.

The next step is actually a pretty small one.

It's more just a formatting change.

If you notice right down here, This text is a little bit off so

it doesn't align in the middle.

And usually that happens because you add this kind of extra line at the end

of your text without thinking about it, and so it messes up the alignment.

So just a small change there, but it bothered me, so had to change it.

The next section to talk about is.

Really this main content section right here.

The reason why it's a little bit challenging to kind of work through

is because there's a lot of text and processing a lot of text all at one

time is pretty difficult, especially if you're hearing this presentation live.

You're trying to listen to what the speaker's saying.

Think about what you're gonna say.

Reading through a lot of text is pretty hard and contrary to what you

might think when you're sitting there looking at a slide, you're not gonna

wanna read through every single line.

You just sort of skim through it to try and catch the highlights.

And if it's just text, it's really hard to skim.

One pretty simple way that I'm a big fan of is to introduce icons, so, What I did

is I kind of spaced this out just a little bit, gave some extra room right here,

and then now we can add icons that fit in with the message of each of these levers.

When you're reading this text right here, it's just that much easier to grasp the

content that you're trying to communicate.

And there we go.

I think this slide is significantly better.

It might not look like a whole lot of changes were made, and especially

because we've been now looking at this slide for a few minutes.

If you were looking at this slide for the first time, you'd have a

much easier time actually processing the information on the slide and

trying to get to the key insights.

All right. Let's talk about slide number two.

So this one is about goods and data flows across the globe, and it's, as you can

tell, it's a pretty straightforward slide.

It's just a list of recommendations, and some of these recommendations are supposed

to be key enablers for digitalization.

And overall, this is actually a pretty normal slide.

You might see this at the end of the deck or sometimes at the beginning of the deck

to kind of frame the entire deck, uh, but it's a pretty straightforward slide.

No charts, no numbers, and that's completely fine.

So first, let's talk about the overall structure of the slide.

Title on the top.

List of recommendations, take away, down at the bottom.

Again, straightforward.

Totally.

Okay.

But where I think that slide could be improved a little bit again, is with

the title, it's not that bad, but there's two things that I wanna change.

First is, there's plenty of room right here.

So we can make this title bigger and we can make it bolder.

And also notice how it kind of goes outside of the margins here.

It just makes for kind of a messy look, and I think it should be improved.

So first step was to just improve.

And second thing to notice is this legend right here.

I think it's trying to indicate that some of these are enablers for digitalization.

Some of 'em are kind of enablers and some of 'em aren't enablers at all,

but that message isn't that clear.

So I think we can improve that by, instead of making this kind of a

gradient box right here, have it just apply to certain recommendations.

And that doesn't look very good, but at least logically it makes more sense.

So let's take it one step further and try to make it look good.

One way we can do that is by removing this fill color.

It just kind of blends in with this darker orange right here, I guess.

Doesn't blend in.

It more clashes.

And so if we can improve that just a little bit, By removing the fill

and moving this legend down here, that's gonna look a whole lot better.

So now that we've removed the legend, we've got all this space right here.

So we can probably space out the slide just a little bit more.

Gonna make the title just a tiny bit bigger and kind of space, some

of these sections out a little bit more so it's easier to read.

and if we wanted to, we could probably leave the slide just like this as

it is and it would look a whole lot better and be completely fine.

But I think there's a few more things we can do.

First thing is the text on the slide is kind of hard to read just because

there's a lot of it less than our last slide, but it's hard to really

understand each of these recommendations.

So there's a few options here.

One.

Yeah, we could just add icons like we did on the last slide, but with

eight recommendations, that's a lot of icons and at that point the

icons themselves become distracting and don't really help the slide.

So one thing I'm gonna try and do here is just split this into two separate sections

to kind of space the text that a little bit more and get rid of some of this text

to make it more to the point and more.

So now this just applies to this right section right here.

The text is more spaced apart.

And it's kind of trimmed down just a little bit to be, again, more to

the point and more straightforward.

But the problem we have here now is most of the focus is coming down to this

takeaway box right here because it's bright orange and some of this text is

a little bit more boring, so we need to shift that focus just a little bit.

So you focus on the recommendations and then the takeaway box is kind of the

last thing you look at, because if you look at the content of this takeaway

box, it's trying to spark a conversation.

It's not really calling attention to information that's already on the slide.

So we want the audience to look here first, focus on this second and this last.

So visually we need to represent that flow.

So one way we can do that is by bringing just a little bit more

color into these sections up here.

So now not only the slide, a lot easier to process visually, but

look at the logical connection.

The title is mostly about this section right here, and they're

both blue, so the audience can make that connection visually.

It's a lot easier to process, a lot easier to read.

But then the second thing is this point about digitalization

connects with the takeaway box.

And those are both orange.

So again, there's kind of a visual and a logical connection

there that makes a lot of sense.

Makes this slide a whole lot easier to.

So compare this with our original slide that kind of

had that ugly orange gradient.

This slide looks a whole lot better.

It's a lot cleaner.

There's less text to kind of clutter our brains.

There's visual components drawing attention to the parts that really matter,

and there's less focus on the takeaway box, which really was just a distraction.

And then not to mention, we removed this really ugly kind of puke orange color.

That was confusing and tough to look at.

So overall, I think this slide looks a whole lot better.

All right, let's take a look at slide number.

This slide again is about the mining industry.

Title says companies are planning for the future with technology in mind and

expect revenues to keep growing at 4%.

So again, this slide is about technology and its impact on revenue.

And the main challenge with this slide.

You're probably already thinking it.

There's just too much going on.

The components of the slide are all there.

They support the message.

The logic is great, but there's too much going on visually.

It distracts from the message.

It makes it difficult on the audience.

So first thing I'm gonna do, of course, is take out this

photo again, doesn't contribute.

Let's get it out of.

Second thing is, you may have remembered this from our first

slide, but this section right here, there's just too much going on.

It's all kind of bunched together, so it's harder to read the title

and then move down to the content.

So when I go to read this title, I'm also distracted by this text and this

text, and now I'm kind of getting into the slide or getting into the chart.

Excuse me.

So we can improve that by just removing this line and kind of

moving it down a little bit.

Now the title's got some breathing room.

It makes it a lot easier to understand.

The next thing is all these lines on here.

There's so many lines on this chart.

There's the revenue line, which is kind of our main focus.

You've got the EBIT dial line below that, and then these growth rate lines,

and these also have their own callouts.

It's just a lot of lines on the slide, and really if you look at the

message, we don't need all of these.

The focus is on this 4%.

So let's delete some of these ones in this section right here.

And already that looks a whole lot better.

This puts the focus on this section, which is really what we wanna focus

on, but of course, you still have the data for the rest of the slide

that puts it in the right context.

And actually, we can probably take this just one step further and remove

this down right here because there's no focus on this and the title, it's not

really important to the overall message.

So let's get rid.

All right.

Now we have the same problem we had from the earlier slide.

The legend is way up here, and that does two things.

It takes away from this title right here, but also it makes it harder

to understand which line is which.

Yeah, you can come up and look at the legend.

It doesn't take you more than a couple seconds, but that's just

an extra step that you don't need to make your audience go through.

So what I'm gonna do is not only move.

Move each of these down here to kind of match with the lines, but I'm also gonna

change them, make them a different color, a different font, a little bit bolder,

and so it kind of connects with each.

So notice what I did here is I made this the same color as this and I removed the

dots because you don't need the dots.

Again, this kind of matches with this line.

It's pretty easy to see.

It's pretty clear.

You don't need this legend right here.

I also made this kegar line just a little bit smaller and.

Put the label right next to it so it's more clear.

And if you didn't notice this average industry EBITDA margin, I

abbreviated that a little bit and put it right next to these bubbles.

So now we don't need any legend at all.

There's space right here, kind of cleans up the slide just a little bit.

Makes it a whole lot easier to read.

So let's take a second to consider the type of chart that they chose here.

They chose a line chart and I think that was actually the right

choice because with the line chart, it focuses on the overall trend.

You see one kind of cohesive line, and so it forces the audience to focus

on what's happening from start to finish versus say like a column chart.

You have individual columns.

And the focus is on each of the columns and the difference between those two

columns, and that's not really what they're trying to focus on right here.

They're trying to show you an overall trend, and in particular,

they're trying to show you this last section of the trend, this 4%, which

again, connects with the title.

So a line chart is the right choice here.

But one thing I think they could have done better here is the distinguish between the

historical and the projected data on this chart, which happens about right here.

But there's nothing on the access labels.

There's nothing on the chart itself to indicate which of this is historical

and which of this is projected.

And I think that's a big miss here because that's an important part of the message.

So what I did was just add this simple line right here

that indicates where today is.

So this is projected and.

That's historical.

It's pretty clear you don't want this to stand out too much because again,

going back to our pro from earlier, there's a lot of lines on this slide

and you don't want to distract more than you need to, but information

like this is important to the message.

All right, a couple more things I'm gonna do to improve this slide.

This gap right here is actually starting to bother me.

So what I did was I just moved the title over a little bit.

This is kind of more of a standard practice anyway, and with the

legend gone, we can space this out.

It's a lot easier to read and you know, I love a good title.

Then the next thing that kind of bothers me is this section down here.

So these access labels, it's not immediately clear that

these are referring to years.

Like yeah, if you look at it after a couple seconds, of course these are

years, but I think we can make that message pop just a little bit more.

by adding these kind of, I forget what you call these, these little apostrophes, to

make them very clear that they're years.

So when you look at this, you understand right away.

And then along with that, because we've kind of removed this percent sign from

the label right here, if we put it in the actual numbers next to the actual

numbers themselves, I think that also makes it a little bit more clear.

So made those changes.

So now the slide is just that much easier to.

It's clear, it's visually appealing.

It's got the elements you want on it.

Without the elements you don't, it looks a whole lot better than the original.

All right, that's gonna do for today's video.

I hope you found it helpful.

This was a slightly different style than some of the other

videos we've done before.

So if you wanna see more of these kind of videos, let me know.

Or if you'd rather some other content, then let me know that as well.

And if you haven't yet, make sure you check out our advanced

[email protected].

We've also got a free course up there that's super helpful.

It's probably way more stuff than we should be giving out for free.

So if you haven't already, make sure you check that out.

If you're on YouTube then there'll be links to that down below.

Thanks again for watching everybody talk to you.