A real board deck, rebuilt end-to-end
To show the method working, a confidential 13-slide strategy deck was re-cut to eleven action-titled slides — real photography, every figure sourced, the model and money in clean data-viz. The original asked the board to back a continental rollout; the rebuild asks for one small, reversible pilot, and proves every step. This is the bar the resource is built to clear.
The redesigned deck
Structured on SCQA (Situation → Complication → Question → Answer) with action titles — every headline states the argument, so the deck reads as a single sentence top-to-bottom. Topic-specific palette: clinical navy with an African-warm terracotta accent.
Download the editable .pptx → Eleven slides, real documentary photography, two data slides built from live World Bank data, every figure sourced; three headline options sit in each slide's speaker notes.
Before / after
| Original (13 slides) | Rebuild (11 slides) |
|---|---|
| ~7 of 13 slides AI-generated in NotebookLM — narrative scaffolding presented as strategy | Every slide purpose-built; the genuine Kupanda model and two-model structure kept, the filler cut |
| Topic-titled slides ("The Vision", "Four Levels of Impact") | Action titles — the headline is the argument |
| Key claims asserted, unsourced ("15 nations = 80% of market") | Claims sourced or cut; Kenya MES & Lesotho QMMH added as real, costed precedents |
| Empty stat slides, no imagery | Dense sourced factoids + real documentary photography on the human slides |
| Ask: back a continental rollout | Ask: one reversible 12-month pilot with a single Go/No-Go |
The 6 → 9 method
A 9/10 deck is never one prompt. It is a pipeline — research, critique, redesign, critique — with a tool at each stage. This is how LLMs and tools actually get there:
20 board-grade exemplars
The canon isn't a pile of templates — it's a handful of sources that generate good slides, plus the real decks that prove the point. Links go to the best public home for each.
Minto — The Pyramid Principle
Governing thought on top, MECE support below. The grammar of every consulting deck.
barbaraminto.com →Zelazny — Say It With Charts
Pick the chart from the message: comparison→bar, trend→line, composition→stacked, correlation→scatter.
The reference →SCQA + the ghost deck
Sketch every slide as a one-line title before building a pixel. Forces the argument to hold before design.
Worked examples →The "so-what" headline
The title states the insight, not the topic. Read the headlines alone and you've read the deck.
See it applied →Airbnb — seed deck (2009)
The deck that shaped all pitch decks: one idea per slide, ruthless brevity, problem→solution→market.
View the deck →Uber — pitch deck (2008)
Dense market logic made legible; a masterclass in sequencing the case for a category that didn't exist.
In the collection →Sequoia — pitch deck template
The canonical 10-slide skeleton VCs expect. The default structure to bend, not break.
sequoiacap.com →Dropbox — seed deck
A simple product, a clear wedge, a believable path to scale. Clarity beats polish.
In the library →Buffer — transparent raise deck
Honest metrics, plain design — proof that substance and trust outrank visual fireworks.
In the collection →LinkedIn — Series B deck
Reid Hoffman's annotated deck: every slide with the reasoning behind it. A teaching artifact.
reidhoffman.org →Front — Series A deck
Mathilde Collin's published deck: narrative tension, crisp metrics, a confident ask.
In the library →Tesla / SpaceX investor narratives
Mission-first framing that makes capital-intensive bets feel inevitable, not risky.
In the library →McKinsey Global Institute reports
Exhibit-led pages: one chart, one takeaway, sourced footers. The reference for data-density done cleanly.
mckinsey.com/mgi →BCG Henderson Institute
Concept diagrams that carry an argument — the schematic as the slide, not a decoration on it.
bcg.com/publications →Bain — corporate strategy decks
Tight executive summaries; the "answer-first" page that respects a board's time.
bain.com/insights →Stripe annual letters
Prose-and-chart hybrids that prove you don't need bullet soup to land a complex point.
stripe.com →Slidebean — 35+ startup decks
Annotated, downloadable real decks from funded companies. The best single library to study.
slidebean.com →Figma — 34 pitch deck examples
Modern, design-led examples with the why behind each layout decision.
figma.com →Visme — 18 funded decks
Real decks that closed rounds, grouped by what each did well.
visme.co →Duarte — Resonate / slide:ology
Story structure for presentations: tension and resolution, not a list of facts.
duarte.com →The data that lifts it
What turned this from a 6 into a 9 was evidence the original didn't carry:
Still internal-only, and flagged as such: per-unit economics, the real country concentration behind "15 nations", and whether any development-finance term sheet exists. A deck can't reach a true 9 on those until the principal supplies them.
A note on confidentiality
The source material was marked strictly internal — highly confidential. This page is set to noindex and is unlisted, but it is still reachable by anyone with the link. Treat the URL as sensitive — and say the word to password-gate it or swap the live content for a sanitised dummy.