1. No one cares about
your bullet points
& OTHER COMMON-SENSE PRESENTATION PRACTICES
BILL CHUNG

2. This is a deck about decks.

3. I’m a designer—but I think everyone
can apply these simple principles.

4. If you’re a product manager, designer,
or marketer (or anyone who needs to be
convincing) this is for you.

5. Presenting well can mean the
difference between success and failure.

6. Being able to clearly communicate and
create understanding, gets people
aligned and behind you.

7. And a lack of collective
understanding of whatever you’re
working on, is both toxic and costly.

8. To present a deck well, you need only
follow a few simple principles.

9. Understand that no one cares
about your bullet points.
PRINCIPLE ONE

10. Does a slide in your deck look like this?
● Heads up: only a very special type of person will actually read what you write here
● In fact, if you have a slide like this in your deck, you’ll likely lose your audience before you hit
the second bullet point
● So do yourself a favour, and stop worrying about wasting pixels
● There are a couple other reasons why no one will read this, but I’ll get into it into on a
DIFFERENT SLIDE because you’re probably not reading this
● I’ve seen teams go completely off the rails because an important decision was hidden in an
asinine list such as this monstrosity
● So don’t ever do this, unless you WANT to hide something, in which case you are either
brilliant or a deviant of Machiavellian proportions
● Still reading? Great, don’t format slides like this, ever
● Because no one cares — which is a concern, because it’s probable someone in the room might
need the context you’re trying to convey

11. When you use a lot of bullets, you spend
more time on a single slide.

12. The problem is that humans have an
attention span of about 8 seconds.

13. Remember how pissed you get
when you see a YouTube ad?
Those are five seconds.

14. So how long would it take for you to talk about
these bullet points?
● Heads up: only a very special type of person will actually read what you write here
● In fact, if you have a slide like this in your deck, you’ll likely lose your audience before you hit
the second bullet point
● So do yourself a favour, and stop worrying about wasting pixels
● There are a couple other reasons why no one will read this, but I’ll get into it into on a
DIFFERENT SLIDE because you’re probably not reading this
● I’ve seen teams go completely off the rails because an important decision was hidden in an
asinine list such as this monstrosity
● So don’t ever do this, unless you WANT to hide something, in which case you are either
brilliant or a deviant of Machiavellian proportions
● Still reading? Great, don’t format slides like this, ever
● Because no one gives a fuck — which is a concern, because it’s probable someone in the room
might need the context you’re trying to convey

15. Humans are impatient—and require
constant stimulation.

16. So give it to them.
Break up your thoughts into multiple
slides to keep them engaged.

17. The act of condensing your key points
into short statements, allows you to
internalize the narrative.

18. Know the story
not your speaker notes.
PRINCIPLE TWO

19. A lot of people get intimidated by long
presentations. Lots of slides and even
more bullet points.

20. Have you ever worried about how
you’re ever going to memorize it all?

21. It’s unlikely that people will be able to
absorb all that detail you have in your
head. And they may not even care.

22. It’s your job to make them care.

23. Think about the last time you had a
traumatizing experience.

24. It’s likely, that the most minute detail of
what happened, lingers in your mind.

25. It’s also likely that you could tell me
that story, without needing to read a
bunch of speaker notes.

27. Your presentation, need
not be different.

28. Spend more time on crafting the
narrative of your presentation,
versus writing your speaker notes.

29. So you spend less time reading speaker
notes, and more time making eye
contact with your audience.

30. Make your first slide a blank one.
BONUS TIP

31. So you’ve done a good job of getting
your computer all setup before
everyone piles into the meeting room.

32. But if you start with
one of these slides...

33. Nicolas Crage
Chief Madness Officer

34. People will just be gawking
at the screen, when really,
they should be focused on you.

35. A blank slide (literally a slide
with nothing on it) allows the
audience to focus on you.

36. And the first few minutes of a
presentation, really draw an
audience in—like a good book.

37. Use those first few minutes to introduce
yourself, and talk shortly about what
you’ll be presenting.

38. Bringing it all in

39. So that’s it—really simple, common
sense ways to rock your next preso.

40. Every time you’re preparing to present,
just remember that no one cares about
your bullet points.

41. Focus less on conveying every single
little detail: and more on storytelling,
a timeless human tradition.

42. You’re obviously reading this because
you care about the experience of
listening to presentations.

43. And if you do it right, maybe
your audience will care
about what you have to say.

44. See you up there
BILL CHUNG