Storyboard One Idea per Slide

Filmmakers sketch out their shots before production begins to make sure they’ll hang together structurally, conceptually, and visually. Good presenters use a similar planning process before they sweat over their slides.

Sure, you’re not Steven Spielberg, but don’t be intimidated. Basic storyboarding isn’t hard, and it saves you more time than it takes.

When you’re storyboarding a presentation:

• Keep it simple: Draw small visual representations of your ideas on 1.5″ × 2″ sticky notes (see figure 5-6). Constraining your ideas to a small sketch space forces you to use simple, clear words and pictures as proof of concept before creating slides in presentation software. Don’t be embarrassed by rudimentary sketches. This is an ideation phase; doodles work fine as long as you understand them (and if you don’t, the concept is probably too complex anyway).

• Limit yourself to one idea per slide: There’s no reason to crowd several ideas onto one slide. Slides are free. Make as many as you need to give each idea its own moment onstage (as in figure 5-7).

The sketching process helps you clarify what you want to say and how you want to say it. As Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin, points out, “All the real problems of today are multidimensional. . . . There is no way to fully understand them—thus no way to effectively begin solving them—without at some point literally drawing them out.”

As you storyboard, you’ll be able to tell immediately which concepts are clunky or overly complex (you’ll run out of space on your sticky notes). Eliminate them, and brainstorm new ways to communicate those messages.

Chances are good you can develop at least a couple of your storyboarding doodles into graphics or diagrams you’ll actually use in the presentation. If they’ll help the audience understand or remember your verbal message, they’re worth including. But even if you don’t display any images when you present, nice big type on the screen is better than dense prose.