/deck-from-numbers

---
name: deck-from-numbers
description: >-
  Turn financial results, a budget, a business case or any table of numbers
  into a short slide storyline where every slide title is the conclusion
  (not the topic), each slide carries one chart chosen for the point it
  makes, and the deck ends with the decision the audience must take. Returns
  a slide-by-slide plan (title, chart, data, speaker note) and, if asked,
  the slides themselves. Use this skill whenever the user asks for "a deck",
  "slides", "a presentation", "board pack", "results presentation",
  "investor update", "QBR", "budget presentation", or "turn this
  spreadsheet into slides". Do NOT use for teaching decks or keynotes with
  no data, for designing a brand template, or to fix a single chart.
---

# Deck from numbers

Most finance decks are spreadsheets with a logo on them. Slide titles say
"Revenue", "Costs", "Headcount", and the audience has to find the point in
a table of 40 numbers while the presenter talks over it. The meeting runs
out of time before slide 9, which is where the decision was.

A good numbers deck reads like a short argument. If you read only the slide
titles, top to bottom, you get the whole story and the ask. Each slide
proves its title with one picture. This skill builds that structure first,
because a well-designed slide with the wrong title is still the wrong slide.

## Workflow

### 1. Pin the meeting

Four questions, from the chat or asked once:

1. **Audience**: board, management team, investors, a client, your team.
2. **Decision**: what must they approve, choose or change at the end?
   If there is no decision, the deck is an update: say so and keep it to
   five slides.
3. **Time**: minutes on this item. Rule of thumb: one slide per two
   minutes, at most.
4. **Data**: which files or tables, and which figures are final.

### 2. Write the titles first

Write the deck as a list of slide titles only, each one a full sentence
that states a conclusion with a number:

- Weak: "Q3 revenue"
- Strong: "Q3 revenue grew 9%, all of it from existing clients"

Test the list: read the titles aloud in order. If they do not tell the
story and land on the decision, reorder or rewrite them before touching a
chart. Show the title list to the user and get a yes, because changing the
storyline after the charts are built wastes the most time.

Default storyline for results and budgets:

1. **The answer**: the headline result and the decision you will ask for.
2. **What happened**: two or three slides on the drivers.
3. **What it means**: the effect on the year or the plan.
4. **Options**: two or three choices with their numbers.
5. **The ask**: the decision, the owner, the date.
6. **Appendix**: the detailed tables, for questions only.

### 3. Pick one chart per slide

Choose the chart by the point in the title:

| The title says... | Use |
|---|---|
| Something changed over time | Line (many periods) or column (few periods) |
| A bridge from A to B ("profit fell because...") | Waterfall |
| Parts of a whole, at most 5 parts | Stacked bar or a simple 100% bar |
| A ranking | Horizontal bar, sorted |
| Actual vs target | Bar with a target line, or bullet chart |
| Two measures related | Scatter |
| One number matters most | The number, big, with one comparison |

Never pie charts with more than three slices, never 3D, never two y-axes.
Highlight the bar or line the title talks about in the accent colour and
grey out the rest.

### 4. Build the slide plan

For each slide:

```
### Slide N: [Title sentence]
Chart: [type], [what is on each axis], [what is highlighted]
Data: [file / sheet / range, or the exact figures]
Label on chart: [the one annotation that proves the title]
Speaker note: [2-3 sentences the presenter says, including the "so what"]
```

### 5. Check before building

- Every title contains a number or a clear conclusion.
- Every number on a slide ties to the source (run a number check).
- No slide carries more than one chart or more than about 30 words.
- The decision appears on slide 1 and on the ask slide.
- The appendix holds every detailed table, so no main slide needs one.

Then build the slides if the user wants them, in their template or tool.

## Judgment rules

**Lead with the answer.** Senior audiences want the conclusion first and
the evidence second. Saving the result for the end turns a meeting into a
mystery novel.

**Bad news goes in the title too.** "Costs rose 14%, above the 8% plan,
mainly from two hires made early" respects the audience more than "Cost
overview". Softened titles cost trust when someone reads the chart.

**The chart serves the title.** If the chart does not prove the title at a
glance, change the chart or change the title, never add a second chart.

**Fewer slides win.** If a slide does not move the audience toward the
decision, move it to the appendix.

## Example

Data: monthly P&L with revenue up 9%, gross margin down 2 points, two new
hires, cash steady.

Title list:
1. "Revenue up 9%, margin down 2 points: we ask to raise prices 4% in Q1"
2. "All growth came from existing clients; new client sales were flat"
3. "Margin fell because supplier costs rose 6% and our prices did not"
4. "Without a price change, full-year profit lands €120k under plan"
5. "Three options: raise 4%, raise 2% and cut a supplier, or hold"
6. "Decision today: approve the 4% rise from 1 January"

Read the six titles alone and the board knows the story and the ask.