Presentation Outline Template

1. Title and one-line point. Open with a title slide that states your whole presentation as a single claim, not a topic. "Q3 revenue beat plan by 12%, driven by two accounts" beats "Q3 Results." If someone only reads this slide, it should still tell them what you think.

2. Context. One slide that grounds everyone in the shared situation — the facts nobody in the room disputes. This is the launch pad, not the argument, so keep it short and move on quickly.

3. Tension. Name the problem, gap, change, or decision on the table. This is the slide most people skip and the one that holds attention: without a stated problem, your recommendation sounds like an opinion instead of an answer.

4. Evidence (two to four slides). Each evidence slide carries exactly one idea and the proof behind it — a number, a chart, an example, a customer quote. Add or remove evidence slides to fit your material, but never let a single slide argue two things at once.

5. Recommendation. State plainly what you propose, in one sentence, ideally reusing the words from your title so the deck loops shut rather than trailing off.

6. The ask. End with the specific next step: the decision, budget, or action you want, who owns it, and when it happens. Make the decision easy to say yes to.

7. Appendix (optional). Park supporting detail, backup charts, and likely-question answers here so the main line stays lean. If a slide does not serve the point, it belongs in the appendix or nowhere.

The template only works if you write each line as an assertion someone could disagree with. "Pricing" is a label; "Our pricing is the main thing blocking mid-market deals" is a claim you can argue and an audience can remember. Go through the seven parts and turn every one into a full sentence before you think about layout — if a line will not compress into a single clear statement, it is usually hiding two slides.

Hold the line on one idea per slide. A slide is a unit of attention, not a container for everything you know. When an evidence slide starts carrying two points, split it; the argument gets clearer, not longer. The template gives you room to do this — the evidence block flexes from two slides to four — so resist the urge to cram.

The spine is the part you do not change. Whatever the occasion, keep the point up front, put the tension before the evidence, and finish with a specific ask. A status update might compress context and tension into a single slide; a keynote might dwell on the tension for three. What stays constant is the order, and that order is what makes a deck feel inevitable rather than arbitrary.

Investor pitch example. (1) Title: "We help X do Y, and we are growing Z% a month." (2) Context: the market and why now. (3) Tension: the problem customers feel today and the cost of the status quo. (4) Evidence, one idea per slide: the product, traction, the business model, and the team. (5) Recommendation: the round you are raising and what it unlocks. (6) Ask: the amount and the milestone it funds. Appendix: cohort data, cap table, detailed financials.

Sales presentation example. (1) Title: the outcome you deliver for this specific prospect. (2) Context: their situation, in their words, to prove you listened. (3) Tension: what their status quo is costing them. (4) Evidence, one idea per slide: your solution mapped to their problem, a proof point or case study, and pricing. (5) Recommendation: the plan that fits them. (6) Ask: the next step — a pilot, a signature, or a meeting with the decision-maker. Appendix: security, integrations, references.

Status or report presentation example. (1) Title: the headline finding in one line. (2) Context: the goal or metric you are reporting against. (3) Tension: what changed, what is off track, or what needs a decision. (4) Evidence, one idea per slide: the two or three numbers that actually matter. (5) Recommendation: what you will do about it. (6) Ask: the decision or resource you need to proceed. Appendix: full dashboards and methodology.

The first mistake is burying the point. Presenters walk through background for ten slides before saying what they actually mean, and by then attention is gone. The template forces the point to slide one so every slide after it has a job. If you catch yourself building up to a reveal, move the reveal to the front.

The second and third mistakes travel together: too many ideas per slide, and no tension. When a slide argues two things, the audience reads ahead and half-listens; when there is no clearly stated problem, your recommendation has nothing to answer. Give each slide one idea, and spend a full slide making the gap uncomfortable before you resolve it.

The fourth mistake is a soft landing. A "Thank you / Questions?" slide throws away the last thing on screen — the image people carry out of the room. Replace it with your point restated and one concrete ask: the decision, the budget, the owner, the date. If the audience remembers a single slide, make it the one that tells them what to do next.

The usual workflow wastes the outline. You draft it in a doc, then open a blank slide file and effectively re-enter everything, losing the clean structure along the way. A content-first approach closes that gap. In Eazy you write the outline in a real editor — headings for the parts of the template, bullets for evidence, dividers where slides break — and that document is what becomes the deck. Start with a thought, not a prompt.

Because the document is the source of truth, editing stays easy after you design. Change one line in the outline and only that slide rebuilds; the slides you already liked stay put. You can also start from material you already have — drop in a PDF, Word doc, spreadsheet, or a web link and it is read into editable content — so the template can be filled from existing research rather than a blank page, then refined by talking to it in plain language.

When the argument holds, you design: slides are built for you, on-brand out of the box, and you can restyle the whole deck by applying a theme before you export to PDF or PPTX. The point is not the design step, though — it is that the outline never stops being the thing you edit. Get the seven parts right on the page, and the finished presentation is mostly a formatting decision.