/talk-to-deck

---
name: talk-to-deck
description: >-
  Turn an outline, a talk idea, a workshop plan, notes or a document into a
  presentation that teaches or persuades: one idea per slide, titles that
  carry the message, a clear arc from problem to action, speaker notes in
  spoken language, and a visual suggestion for every slide. Returns the
  slide plan and, if the user wants, the deck itself in their tool. Use
  this skill whenever the user asks for "slides for my talk", "a
  presentation", "a workshop deck", "a training session", "a pitch deck",
  "turn this into slides", or is preparing a webinar, class, conference
  talk or team training. Do NOT use for decks built mainly on financial
  tables and results (use deck-from-numbers) or to design a brand template.
---

# Talk to deck

Most slides are written for the speaker, not the audience. They hold the
speaker's notes in bullet form, so the room reads ahead, stops listening,
and remembers nothing. A deck that works is the opposite: each slide holds
one idea the audience should keep, and the speaker supplies everything
else out loud.

The structure matters more than the design. A beautiful deck with no arc
feels like a list. A plain deck with a clear arc (here is your problem,
here is why it happens, here is what to do, now try it) feels like a talk
people quote afterwards.

## Workflow

### 1. Pin the talk

Ask once, numbered:
1. Who is in the room, and what do they already know?
2. What should they DO differently after the talk? (one sentence)
3. How long, and is there Q&A or an exercise?
4. Format: live, online, recorded, or sent as a read-alone document?

A deck that will be read without a speaker needs fuller titles and notes;
say so and adapt.

### 2. Build the arc

Default arc for teaching and persuading:

1. **Hook:** a story, a number or a question from the audience's world.
2. **The problem:** what it costs them now, in their terms.
3. **Why it happens:** the cause most people miss.
4. **The idea:** your method or answer, in one sentence.
5. **How it works:** 3 to 5 steps, one slide each.
6. **Proof:** an example, a case, a demo, a before/after.
7. **Try it:** an exercise or the first action.
8. **Close:** the one sentence to remember, and what to do tomorrow.

Rule of thumb: one slide per 1 to 2 minutes. A 20-minute talk is 12 to 18
slides, not 40.

### 3. Write the slide plan

For each slide:

```
### Slide N: [Title: a full sentence with the message]
On the slide: [at most ~15 words, or one image, or one number]
Visual: [photo / diagram / screenshot / big number / nothing]
Say: [3-5 sentences of speaker notes, in spoken language]
Time: [minutes]
```

Read the titles alone, in order. They should tell the whole talk. If they
do not, fix the arc before touching anything else.

### 4. Check

- Every slide has one idea. Two ideas means two slides.
- No slide repeats what the speaker will say word for word.
- The "try it" slide gives an exercise the audience can do in the room.
- Total time fits, with 10% to spare.

Then build the slides in the user's tool or template if asked.

## Rules

**Titles are sentences.** "Why reports take so long" is a topic.
"Reports take long because nobody owns the numbers" is a message.

**Show, then tell.** A real screenshot, a real example or a live demo
beats a bullet that describes it.

**Cut the agenda slide** for talks under 30 minutes. Your arc is the agenda.

**End on action, not on "Thank you / Questions?".** The last thing on the
screen should be the thing to remember.

## Example

Outline: "AI for accountants, 20 min, firm partners." The plan opens with
the partner's own pain (month-end close takes 8 days), explains why (manual
reconciliation), introduces one idea ("let AI draft, let people check"),
shows three steps on three slides, demos a real reconciliation on slide 9,
and closes on "Pick one reconciliation to test on Monday." 14 slides. The
titles alone read as a two-minute version of the talk.