We know: Crafting a fancy PowerPoint with charts and graphs that’ll get your point across and won’t make everyone’s eyes glaze over—it’s no simple feat.
But here’s the secret: It’s a whole lot easier if you have a few go-to templates up your sleeve. We’ve pulled together 10 great slides that are easy to use, helpful in making your point, and sure to impress your boss or client. Check out this slideshow to learn exactly how to use them, then download them to use next time you’re prepping for a big presentation.
Use this template to show the breakdown of a problem into multiple parts, such as several different objectives for a project, or three main branches of a strategy. The columns can be used to provide additional context around each section—for example, to show a definition and an example of each big idea, or a next step and the person in charge of it.
With this slide, you can easily explain anything that has a step-by-step flow—from outlining a plan to get something done to explaining your user acquisition model. Just make sure that the topic at hand involves different parts of a whole process that must be sequential.
This is your basic “from this to that” slide. You can use it to explain things such as the current situation versus the end state, or what the company has versus what it wants to have. You can also duplicate the left box to make a 3-step explanation (e.g. to show where the company used to be, where it is now, and where it should be).
This slide is also good for showing the flow of a process, but in a more cyclical way. It’s good for explaining anything that involves a repeat process, such as a product review cycle or client prospecting.
The basic matrix is great for explaining complex concepts with two different dimensions in a very simple, visual way. Note: You always want the best option (the one that maximizes both metrics) to be in the top right corner, and the worst to be in the bottom left. So, if you need to flip the “high” and “low” labels to make this happen, do so. For example, if you’re doing a cost-benefit analysis, the best option would have the lowest cost with the highest benefit.
The bubble graph is perfect when you have three different dimensions to compare. The X and Y axis should be the most important metrics you are comparing, and the bubbles should show the size of something, such as number of people or revenue. A great way to use this chart is when comparing your company to competitors: Look at revenue on the X axis, market penetration on the Y axis, and size of each company in the bubbles.
This slide is perfect for comparing the change of two different things across some progression of time. For example, you could compare the sales of two different products from year to year to show how the market has changed over time.
By putting the bars on their sides, you go from comparing general trends (like in the previous slide) to comparing specific numbers side by side. Because of this, your labels don’t necessarily have to be sequential—you could look at number of users in different age ranges for two different products, or your revenue versus your competitor’s revenue in five major countries.
This slide is a way to compare the percentage breakdown of several different things. It’s kind of like comparing four different pie charts, but it’s much easier to visually understand. For example, if you have four big markets and three primary products, you can look at how the sales of each product break down in your different markets.
This slide is a way to compare the percentage breakdown of several different things. It’s kind of like comparing four different pie charts, but it’s much easier to visually understand. For example, if you have four big markets and three primary products, you can look at how the sales of each product break down in your different markets.
Click here to download all of the templates!
When you’re using the templates, you can change the numbers in the charts by right clicking the chart, and selecting “Edit Object” or “Edit Data” (depending on your version of PowerPoint). An Excel file will open up, and you can change the numbers from there. Just make sure to check the formatting once you close Excel—you may have to re-size to make sure everything fits or is at the same scale.
Home page photo courtesy of Highways Agency.
