How to outline a presentation before you make a single slide
Start with the one sentence you want the audience to remember. List the three to five points that prove it, put them in an order that builds (situation, complication, resolution works for most talks), and write each slide's title as a full sentence. Read the titles aloud: if they tell the story, design the slides.
1. Write the one sentence
What should people remember tomorrow? Write it as a full sentence with a verb: Converting 24 stores pays back faster than building new ones. This is your key message, and every slide has to support it.
2. Decide who it's for and what they should do
Name the audience and the action you want: approve a budget, sign a contract, understand a concept, change a habit. The same material makes a different outline for a board, a customer or a class.
3. Choose a structure that builds
| Structure | Best for | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Situation, complication, resolution | Recommendations, strategy | Where we are, what changed, what we should do |
| Problem, solution, proof | Pitches, sales | The pain, the fix, the evidence it works |
| What, so what, now what | Reports, research | The finding, why it matters, the next step |
| Hook, teach, practise, recap | Lessons, training | A puzzle, the idea, an example, a check |
| Past, present, future | Updates, all-hands | What we did, where we are, what's next |
4. Write every slide title as a sentence
Under the structure, list your slides as full-sentence titles. Here's an outline for a ten-minute project update:
- The launch reached 40% more people than planned.
- Two channels drove nearly all the growth.
- Paid social cost twice what we expected.
- Delays came from one supplier, now replaced.
- Next quarter we double down on the two channels that worked.
- We need one decision today: move the paid budget.
5. Test it by reading the titles aloud
If the titles alone tell the story, the outline works. If one feels like a jump, you're missing a slide; if two say the same thing, merge them.
6. Sort slide, notes and appendix
For each point, decide: does the audience need to see it (slide), only hear it (speaker notes), or only have it if asked (appendix or detail card)? Most outlines shrink by a third at this step.
Key message: [the one sentence] Audience: [who] — they should [action] afterwards Structure: [situation, complication, resolution] Slides: 1. [title as a full sentence] 2. [title as a full sentence] 3. [title as a full sentence] 4. [title as a full sentence] 5. [title as a full sentence] Appendix: [questions you expect]
Try this promptDeckLume works this way too: it drafts an outline of full-sentence titles from your brief and files, and you reorder, rewrite or cut slides before anything is designed.
Questions
What is a presentation outline?
A list of the slides in order, each with a one-line title stating its point, built around a single key message and a structure. It's the plan you check before designing anything.
What is the situation-complication-resolution structure?
A storytelling structure used by management consultants: describe the current situation, introduce what changed or went wrong, then present your recommendation as the resolution.
How detailed should an outline be?
One full-sentence title per slide, plus a note on the evidence each slide will show. Anything more belongs in speaker notes.
Your next deck starts with a sentence.
Describe it, attach what you have, and get a finished deck in your own style. The free plan is yours to keep.
Get started free