Produces decks for a business audience — executives, managers, clients, cross-functional stakeholders — in PowerPoint (generated as a real .pptx) or Canva (import-ready content plus a design spec, since Canva files can't be generated programmatically). The audience cares about decisions, impact, risk, and next steps, not methodological novelty.
This is the render step for non-LaTeX decks. It reuses the slide-spec and design rules from slide-design-principles. For academic LaTeX decks use the beamer-* skills instead.
What a business deck is for
A business deck answers, in order: What's the situation? What should we do? What happens if we do (or don't)? Lead with the answer; supporting detail follows. This is the opposite of a paper's build-up-to-the-result structure — executives read top-down and may stop after slide 3.
Two framings that work; pick one and keep it:
- SCQA — Situation → Complication → Question → Answer. Good for problem/recommendation decks.
- Pyramid (answer-first) — Recommendation up front, then grouped supporting arguments, then evidence. Good for decision and QBR decks.
Common genres & spines
| Genre | Spine |
|---|---|
| Executive summary / decision deck | Recommendation → why → impact → risks → ask |
| Pilot / project results report | Goal → what we did → results vs. target → what it means → next step |
| Quarterly business review (QBR) | Headline metrics → wins → misses → drivers → plan |
| R&D-to-business report | Problem & opportunity → approach (plain language) → evidence → business impact → roadmap/ask |
| Client deliverable | Objectives → findings → recommendations → implementation plan → appendix |
Every spine opens with a single executive-summary slide that stands alone — if that's all someone reads, they get the decision and the why.
Workflow
1. Gather inputs
- Target tool: PowerPoint (
.pptx) or Canva. - Genre, audience seniority, and the one decision/action the deck should drive.
- The numbers: metrics, targets, results, costs/benefits, timeline.
- Branding: template/theme colors, logo, fonts (a corporate
.pptxtemplate to start from?).
2. Build the slide-spec
Use the genre spine, then per-slide spec blocks (slide-design-principles), with business-specific emphasis:
- Slide 1 after title = executive summary: the recommendation + 2–3 reasons + the ask. Self-contained.
- Claim-titles as business outcomes: "Pilot cut handling time 31% — recommend full rollout", not "Pilot Results".
- One chart per slide, the chart is the argument (bar/line/waterfall), labeled with the takeaway, minimal chrome.
- Quantify impact in business units: time, cost, revenue, risk, satisfaction — not just model metrics. Translate accuracy/F1 into dollars/hours when possible.
- Risks & next steps are mandatory closing slides; executives want the downside and the ask.
- Detailed methodology, full tables, and technical depth go to an appendix.
Confirm the spec before generating the artifact.
3a. Emit the .pptx (PowerPoint)
Render the approved spec to a real PowerPoint file with scripts/build_pptx.py:
- Write the spec to a
slides.json(schema documented in the script header). - Run the builder; it produces
deck.pptxwith title, section, bullet, chart-placeholder, and table layouts, claim-titles, consistent theme colors, page numbers, and speaker notes. - If a corporate
.pptxtemplate is supplied, pass it as the base so brand fonts/colors/master are inherited. - Charts: the builder inserts native PowerPoint charts when given data, or a labeled placeholder otherwise (so the user can paste a branded chart).
3b. Canva path
Canva has no file-generation API, so deliver:
- Import-ready content: a clean, per-slide text outline (title + body + notes) the user can paste into Canva, plus the exact chart data.
- A design spec: recommended Canva template style, color hex codes, font pairing, layout per slide type, and where each visual goes.
- Optionally, generate the same deck as
.pptx(step 3a) — Canva can import a.pptxand apply a template, which is usually the fastest route to a branded Canva deck. Offer this.
4. Hand off
PowerPoint: how to open, where to swap in branded charts/logo, where notes live, what's in the appendix. Canva: the import/paste steps and the design spec.
Business-deck rules that differ from academic decks
- Answer first. Never make an executive sit through motivation to reach the recommendation.
- Speak business, not model. "94% precision" means nothing to a VP; "cuts false alerts by ~2,000/month, freeing ~3 FTE" does.
- One message, one chart, one number per slide. Density reads as "not yet decision-ready".
- Make the ask explicit. End with the decision, resource, or approval you need.
- Appendix is your friend. Depth lives there; the main line stays at decision altitude.
Anti-patterns to refuse
- Burying the recommendation on slide 12.
- Reporting model metrics with no business translation.
- A title slide followed by methodology before any result or recommendation.
- Dense multi-chart slides copied from an analysis notebook.
- No risks slide, no explicit ask.
Output
- The confirmed slide-spec (markdown), on a business spine, answer-first.
- PowerPoint:
slides.json+ a generateddeck.pptx(viascripts/build_pptx.py), with marked placeholders and speaker notes. Canva: import-ready per-slide content + chart data + a design spec (and optionally the.pptxfor import). - Hand-off instructions (branding swap-in, appendix contents, Canva import steps).