mblode/presentation-creator

Presentation Creator

Bold, minimal, dark-first slide decks: narrative arc to final QA.

• IS: slide decks end to end: narrative structure, slide copy, visual design, speaker notes, and investor pitch decks.
• IS NOT: long-form prose (use blog-post), marketing copy outside slides (use copywriting), or general visual systems for product UI (use ui-design).

Workflow

Track this checklist:

Presentation progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Gather context (audience, setting, format: live / async / pitch)
- [ ] Step 2: Outline narrative arc and slide sequence (references/outline-structure.md)
- [ ] Step 3: Write slide copy (references/writing-slides.md; pitch decks: references/pitch-decks.md instead)
- [ ] Step 4: Design visual layout and composition (references/visual-design.md)
- [ ] Step 5: Write speaker notes (references/speaker-notes.md); skip for pitch decks
- [ ] Step 6: QA pass, output the slide-by-slide review table

Step 1: Gather context

Establish three things (ask if not provided):

• Audience: internal (shared context, be direct) vs. external (build credibility, define terms)
• Setting: live talk, recorded/async, or standalone investor pitch
• The three messages: what the audience must remember after the deck

Route by format:

• Live talk or internal/recorded deck → Steps 2-6 in order.
• Investor pitch deck (read without a presenter) → read references/pitch-decks.md first. Its 10-slide framework replaces Step 2's outline, and its async copy rules (denser, standalone headlines, 2-3 bullets per section) replace writing-slides.md for Step 3: do not load writing-slides.md on this path, its presented-deck copy limits contradict it. Skip Step 5 (no presenter); Steps 4 and 6 still apply.

Steps 2-5: Build the deck

Read each step's reference when you reach it:

| Step | Reference | Covers | |------|-----------|--------| | 2. Outline | references/outline-structure.md | Narrative flow, 12 slide types, section colors, outline output format | | 3. Write | references/writing-slides.md, replaced by references/pitch-decks.md on the pitch path | Headline patterns, body text rules, copy per slide type, before/after examples | | 4. Design | references/visual-design.md | Typography scale, layout patterns, slide-type → layout mapping, visual elements | | 5. Notes | references/speaker-notes.md | Per-slide note structure, delivery cues, notes by slide type |

Step 6: QA pass (produces evidence)

Review every slide and output a table. This is the deliverable that proves the deck is done, not a "looks good" sign-off:

| # | Slide | 3-sec test | One message | Layout | Section color |
|---|-------|-----------|-------------|--------|---------------|
| 1 | Title | pass | pass | full statement | teal |

• 3-sec test: parseable in 3 seconds at arm's length? Cut copy on any failure until it passes.
• One message: exactly one idea per slide; split slides carrying two.
• Layout: no more than 2 consecutive slides with the same layout.
• Section color: matches the outline's assigned section; no stray accents.

Deck-level checks below the table:

• Accent color count equals section count (teal reused for opening/closing)
• Recap slide has exactly one line per core section
• Pitch decks only: ≤15 slides, explicit ask slide (amount + use of funds), headlines pass the forwardable test (make sense with zero context)

Fix every flagged row and re-output the table before handing over.

Core principles

• Dark-first, high contrast: black/zinc-900 backgrounds, white text, section-colored accents
• Headlines do the work: bold statements, not topic labels:

  Before: "An Overview of Our Q3 Performance Metrics and Results"
  After:  "Q3: Revenue Up 40%. Here's How."
  

• Impact through scale, not weight: large light type beats small bold type
• Section colors create rhythm: one accent per major section so the audience tracks position

Gotchas

• Paragraphs on slides: the audience reads instead of listening and the speaker becomes redundant. Fail the 3-second arm's-length test, cut copy until it passes.
• Accents outside the section system: section colors are wayfinding; a random mid-section accent reads as a topic change that never happened. One color per major section, teal reused for opening and closing.
• Speaker notes as a script: a verbatim script gets read aloud and sounds flat. Notes are scannable prompts: key point, talk-track bullets, transition line.
• Same layout on every slide: uniform layouts flatten rhythm; the audience stops registering new slides. Alternate full-statement, split, and data layouts per visual-design.md.
• Skipping the outline: jumping straight to slides produces a list of facts with no arc, then a rewrite once the missing narrative shows. Lock the three key messages first.
• Sparse headlines on pitch decks: "Traction" tells a skimming investor nothing. Write the complete claim: "1,000+ Customers, $10M ARR". Pitch decks are read, not presented.
• Presented-deck density on a pitch deck: a 3-words-per-slide deck forwarded with no presenter is unreadable. Route to pitch-decks.md in Step 1, not after the deck is built.

Related skills

• blog-post: long-form articles and tutorials; use when the output is prose, not slides
• copywriting: landing pages, CTAs, marketing copy outside a deck
• ui-design: visual systems for product UI and landing pages; presentation visual rules live in references/visual-design.md instead