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The Importance of StoryBoarding: You Wouldn’t Make a Movie Without Writing a Script

Want to try out a professional storyboard used by PitchDeck.com? Download our template here!

The wildly successful ’80s comedy Caddyshack is famous for it’s nearly nonexistent script. Supposedly, the script only contained twenty minutes worth of dialogue, and the rest of the movie was largely improvised.

Although it worked wonders for this film, against all odds, this strategy is surely a guarantee for disaster. A script not only gives a movie its direction and purpose, but it’s a huge organizational tool. It allows the movie’s writer and director to adequately prepare for filming and to visually map out all of the movie’s components.

SlideGenius uses storyboards to plot out and organize each of its professional presentations.
pitchdeck.com uses storyboards to plot out and organize each of its professional pitch decks.

Just as a script serves as a movie’s backbone, a “storyboard” is a vital tool for any professional pitch deck presentation, and it’s an essential part of the process here at pitchdeck.com. A storyboard is essentially a custom-tailored spreadsheet designed for planning out a presentation slide by slide, and it’s something we use for every pitch deck we create.

Storyboarding is the biggest step toward organizing your pitch deck, but there are several other important techniques useful before even opening up a pitch.

Your Topic

Condense the meaning or purpose of your speech down to a single sentence. If that task seems impossible, then it might be time to revise and trim the fat off your topic. After you put your pitch deck into its simplest form, make sure every slide you create contributes to this idea encapsulated in this sentence.

Pay Attention to Your Slide Headings

Do you have a lot of (Continued) slides? Do all of your headings appear to be similar or boasting about the merits of your business or product? This could be a sign that the pitch deck you’re creating could be more well rounded.

Cut the Word Count

After you’ve gone through and created your slides, go back and reduce as much as humanly possible. Question whether adjacent slides can be consolidated, or whether the information on the slides is made redundant by your talking points, rather than being complimentary.

Remember, an audience retains information from pitch deck much more effectively when slides have a small amount of information on them, and merely compliment what the speaker is saying. A cluttered pitch deck is often a sign of lack of planning.

After you’ve done this, go back through and once again, ask yourself, “Does each slide go along with the meaning of my pitch deck?” If you planned your pitch deck presentation correctly, this should be the easiest step.

References:

Caddyshack.Rottentomatoes.

“Study Shows Simplicity Is Key When Creating a PowerPoint Presentation.” SlideGenius. July 24, 2013.

3 AngelList Startups Revolutionizing the World of Pitch Decks

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore wrote a predictive paper in which he described the phenomenon that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year since their inception, and predicted that they would continue to do so. David House, another Intel exec at the time, then established the law that the number actually doubles approximately 18 months. Moore’s Law, as it is now famously called, is not only uncannily accurate, but is now serves as a long-term planning guide for the entire semiconductor industry.

What can we learn from this? We can understand that times are changing, and FAST! This is true in almost every industry, including the world of pitch decks.

We have gone from speeches from balconies, to hand written poster boards, to professional pitch deck, to presentation experts working as pitch deck consultants. While the presentational industry may not be doubling exactly every 18 months, it sure is growing quickly.

AngelList has quickly emerged as an indispensable resource for connecting entrepreneurs with investors, and has now become a unique platform for the presentational industry. The work AngelList does has given rise to several innovative start-ups rapidly changing the work pitch deck designers are doing. Presentate, 9slides, and GoAnimate are three currently revolutionizing the field of pitch deck design.

Presentate is a new online presentation software that works great in almost any resolution, on any desktop computer, tablet, or smart phone. With Presentate, you won’t have to worry about your pitch deck coming out misshaped or with the wrong font or link. Your layout will be the same everywhere you open it. Their site has a fun example of how it works … I guarantee you’ll be entertained, at least for a minute.

9SLIDES is another innovative communication that “allows users to capture and share experience of ‘being there’ in the presentation room with a remote audience, anytime, anywhere.” The app is used for interviews, better transparency through inter-company communication, effective training, and interactive demonstrations. “Your audience can watch it on a PC, Mac or even iPad without downloading any app.” 9SLIDES’s concept as a whole is ultimately bringing the world an effective medium to share videos along with corporate pitches in a synchronized format.

GoAnimate is a do-it-yourself animated video website that believes it “might be for fun, to make a pitch deck, to illustrate historical scenes, make a demo video, or produce a piece of professional training.” With that they realize “producing video can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive. And sometimes it still comes out dark and blurry, with muffled sound.” Because of this issue, GoAnimate was created to minimize difficulty, hassle, and expense of video design and implementation. They have a sleek concept and pride themselves on being the fastest and easiest way to make a video!

Each of these start-ups is uniquely contributing to the prevailing advances in the pitch deck industry. We wish them the best, and know they will continue to impress us!

presentate    9 Slides     goanimate