Hope this video is helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! Interested to learn more about creating consulting-style slide presentations? This is the link to my slide writing course I mention in the video: link.firmlearning.com/slides
What i really like about Firm Learning videos is that the topic is dealth with in very caring and sincere way. Loads of honesty out there. Very very nice..excellent and thanks a lot!
Great video and thank you for sharing your knowledge! Another tip I would like to highlight in addition to the ones mentioned are: 1) Font type, size and style - don't overdue it, keep things simple e.g. 2-3 at most. 1) The same goes for general color range. Simplify them e.g. use one for negative and another for positive developments. Try to align them with your presentation template colors, avoid the rainbow. Thank you Heinrich, I learned great tips from this video.
Plz make a series of your quality content. Don't keep it as a random video . Create a playlist and boom! It should look like complete curriculum for management consultants
You have actually replied to every single comment! You have not played "safe" here as a Consultant by saying "I will try to" :) I wish you good luck for the channel! and I hope you get a lot of comments so that you think of saying "I will try to" :p
Haha thanks Saurabh appreciate it! ;) Comments indeed increased significantly over the last weeks but will try to keep up with them as long as possible ;) Best, H
Last year I quit consulting and joined an international bank in Frankfurt in a risk management position, and I felt that my presentations often did not meet the needs of the board members. Therefore, I think that your tips are very helpful even for non-advisory activities. Thank you for passing on your advice!
I am a first year MBA student and I am so happy to have found your page. My team and I are working on a case study presentation and this has been super helpful. Thank you!
This is awesome! One point I think you can highlight as well is the importance of visual formatting, particularly the usage of colors. For example, in the waterfall graph that shows changes in EBITDA, negative-EBITDA factors can be colored light red while positive can be light green. This makes it easier for someone to just look at the slide and "get it".
Thank you Heinrich for another valuable session on management consulting. I really loved the concepts on waterfall chart and where to use them and why we should refrain from the clothlines into more logical structures.i think your course on ceo presentation is one of the most valuable course so far to make structured presentations and I personally feel this is something even top business schools and large consulting firms dont teach or share. I would really recommend your course and all your videos and look forward to more new thinking and helpful consulting tips. I also think how to leverage meeko charts is something will be valuable to know in future seasons and what situations we should use different grids 2x2 and also how to.create our own hypothesis and validate same top down and bottom up Thank you again for so much guidance and valuable tips. Take care
Thanks Arihant! Yes, Mekko charts are pretty interesting as well, even though they are a little bit more niche in their actual application :) Hypothesis-driven thinking with explanation on top-down vs. bottom-up approach also for sure a relevant topic for potential future videos. Thanks as always for your contributions. Best, Heinrich
Your teaching is very good for beginners... Because I can tell from my experience in firm for 4 years till currently working as BPS and I do presentation day in and day out as u would know already as VA what we do so I can assure this teaching is very good for beginners good one👍
Another fantastic video - the Minto pyramid principle can also be used to highlight structure in a slide and how you should structure the points. You may have already addressed in a different video!
i am not in the first year, coming off from engineering consultancy going into management consultancy... i am still in the interview process... i really don't know if I can cope with it... many reasons for me to make the jump... money is one of those reasons... and i don't see myself excelling in the engineering line anymore... because I enjoy utilizing my people skills... i hope this is the correct jump for me... thank you mate!
9:05 callouts: give details to the charts. 10:45 stickers: 1. type of stickers: for discussion, preliminary, highly preliminary, indicate, illustrative. 2. why important: protect yourself 11:10 I'm interested to hear your opinion, also. why do you believe this is true? 11:25 when some clients say it is BS and do happen, but the problem is just maybe you don't have all the data needed. 12:40 indicate, illustrative: the number is maybe not right, but for the directionally-wise is somehow correct. 14:30 takeaway: general information to the whole chart 15:10 often, a bubble: limitation to the data you're showing. 16:35 if in trouble, use a bubble. 16:50 number circles ??? 不懂用處 19:40 clotheslines: unstructured and random. the people are not trust the statement you present. if you have just thoughts, these are completely not professional. 20:50 in M&A, the structured elements will look like this. 21:30 to avoid clotheslines: you can create buckets.
Another awesome video! I have purchased your course on Udemy and it definitely added tremendous value. I have recommended it to many colleagues. Where does McKinsey, BCG, and Bain get icons from used on their slides and articles?
Thank you, very much appreciate it! Most consulting firms will have their own libraries of icons. For personal use, if you google "icons powerpoint" or something similar, you will find all kinds of icons that you can use. Best! Heinrich
Could you do a video on formating tables for powerpoint presentations please? Sometimes data tables are inevitable and giving them a nice format is a struggle
Great video!! Thanks for the efforts. Would love to see more videos about how to improve hard skills(Excel, PPT) of consultants. Can't wait to learn more!
This is great! This is something we can't learn outside of the consulting firm. As a small business owner, I think the presentation layer is as important as the analysis process. Or I can say the better presentation slides also helps the clear analysis. My current workflow is to use Python Pandas and pyplot to draw something quick(ugly...) for slides but it seems there's a lot to learn and be improved! Thank you and I'll keep follow this channel. Cheers!
Hi Charles, thanks for your comment. Your process sounds already pretty sophisticated with Python Pandas :) Happy to hear the video was helpful. All the best to you - Heinrich
@@FirmLearning The truth is we make the excel way complicated so I have to write python code to grab part of the data that I really need and then draw the graph.:) Simple line or scatter plot is typically dawn for quick analysis but now I learned much better presentation layer in your video. Thank you!
Optimizing Slide Elements: Key Considerations for Effective Presentations Date: Include the current date on each slide to indicate when the document was created or presented. Page Number: Add page numbers for easy reference during discussions or meetings. Source: Specify the source of information or data used on the slide, including the date of collection. Footnotes: Utilize footnotes to provide additional remarks or details that complement the main content. Action Title: Craft concise and impactful titles for each slide to capture the main message. Stickers: Use stickers as qualifiers or labels to convey the context and purpose of the slide. Common stickers include "For Discussion," "Preliminary," "Highly Preliminary," "Indicative," and "Illustrative." They help manage expectations and protect against misinterpretation. Takeaway Box: Include a takeaway box beneath charts or visuals to highlight the main insight or key information. Avoid Clotheslines: Refrain from using long lists of bullet points without structure. Instead, employ clear and organized structural elements to present information effectively.
Hi, Heinrich. Thank you very much for this video. It inspired me to buy your course on Udemy and I also purchased your course on Bitcoin and Blockchain. I am looking forward to commence my learning on Udemy soon. Thank you and take care.
Hi, this is amazing contents, thanks for sharing, some very good insights I've never thought about! Would you happen to have more about the "structure", i.e. the design and break-down of thinking, part? I've noticed that consultancy slides tend to go left->right, from big categories/ topics, into specific items of those. Thanks again.
Great video! Thanks for sharing your experience. The content is outstanding and I learned a lot and will subscribe to your channel. Three tips to make it a 10/10 video: - love that you kept your camera on when recording the slides. I found it a bit distracting that the video is on the bottom right corner and you looked to the right as well. Consider putting the video on the left or mirror the video. This will make you look at the great content you produce. - you have a window in your background. This is always a difficult setup for lightning when recording a video - since you use you mouse pointer to show things it would help to use a mouse pointer highlighter to focus
As a scientist, I have to communicate findings all the time. Never have I ever seen plots that bad.... And this goes not against you... much rather against the common management ppt slide ;) there is a reason why, on Reddit, they make fun of presentations from consulting firms...
Hi, thanks for sharing your perspective. What exactly do you mean by "plots that bad"? I am currently pursuing a PhD myself and therefore also attend research conferences etc. Frankly, I do not have the impression that most scientist are very effective in communicating their findings and data on slides, though there are of course exceptions. What is your discipline, maybe this also differs by subject? Of course always happy to learn more about this topic. Best, Heinrich
Firm Learning - I should have clarified that, within our field (Neuroscience), I’ll find plenty of bad examples as well. Especially on conference posters. :) I made a general comment about the amount of excel bar graphs I‘ve seen in the industry (highlight: unlabeled axes). And I’m not saying: complex = good. Sorry if it wasn’t clear from my first post.
Thank you very much. Very useful. Is there any "sticker" that can indicate that the conclusions of the data shown on the current slide will arrive later on the next slides? Thank you!
Hi Heinrich, Please keep going on :) I appreciated your content. At the beginning of the video, your mug was shown on the brand-free side. BR, Frédéric
Hi Heinrich, thank you so much for the amazing video. One side question: I am curious about what you are using in daily work to deal with researching incl. collection info, distilling insight in reports and managing knowledge which then can be the input of your presentation. I am using basic onenote/word/ppt/folders for such work. Organising my findings in notes, saving the reports/websites and searching based on what I have found has always been a pain. Could you please share your experience and tools you use to manage this? Thank you very much!
Hi Mol, thanks for watching! This indeed changed over time, currently I am taking notes on my laptop for most meetings and using OneNote as an app to organize it all. Might take this topic up for one of the future videos, thanks for suggesting! Best, Heinrich
Hi! No, animations are very rarely used in these settings. Main reason is that documents are not optimized for presentations, often they are just printed out for meetings / sent around as a PDF without ever actually being presented. Best! Heinrich
Incredibly useful video, thanks a lot! On another note, I am currently studying International Business (most graduates become consultants). Thus, my question is: How did you land a job at McKinsey?
Hi Christian, nothing super special about my application journey. I applied for an internship during my Bachelor via the online application form (no referral / personal connection or the like), then got the internship and then got a full-time offer after the internship. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Thanks for the rapid response Heinrich! I have a couple of other questions, would it be possible to reach you on email or anything of the likes? Best regard, Christian
Thanks Heinrich! Was looking for videos like this for some time, as I was struggling a bit when I transitioned from an engineering role to consulting. Also signed up to your Udemy course, so looking forward to completing it.
Hi Tak, Thanks for watching and your comments! Frankly, in consulting (at least what I experienced at McKinsey) people do not usually write down commentaries for the slides. Probably due to three reasons: 1) Slides are usually already supposed to "stand for themselves" with all the relevant facts and information on the page. Therefore no need to provide even more data in excess of that. 2) Due to the tight deadlines, teams often make changes until the very end, now also spending time on writing commentaries would just be too much to handle. 3) Consultants, especially the more senior ones then presenting the content to senior clients, usually are pretty strong at presentation skills, also because they do it so frequently. They are trained to present slides without the need of specific "talking points". The partner who walks in and delivers the presentation with slides he has never seen before is also kind of a meme in consulting in itself ;) Hope this makes sense to you. However, writing good end effective summaries / minutes after important meetings or similar briefings is a skill you need more frequently in consulting. Doing this well is not trivial. So yes, this might be a good idea for future videos, have added this to my idea list for future content! :) Best and thanks, Heinrich
I use the waterfall chart pretty much for all C level presentation to breakdown the earnings and ebitda. Didn't know it isn't widely used in corporate presentations...
Hi Heinrich, thank you so much for the great videa. A question, what's teh difference between a takeaway box and the action title? Under what circumstances would you use teh takeaway box?
thanks for sharing!, What is the difference between information shown by kicker and action title? both of them are used to display the main idea of the slide, Right?
Hi Rishabh, in the action title you include the main message, in the takeaway box usually rather a more specific message that should be on a lower hierarchy level than the main message. Best! Heinrich
Hi Julio, yes! Check out think-cell. It is a plugin for PowerPoint that is used by almost all consulting firms and many corporates as well. Super helpful in quickly creating great charts! Best, Heinrich
OMG - I use clotheslines all the time :-) You give me something to chew on. I mean that is *a lot* of work to convert these into structure elements. Even more when you actually only want to list options. Will see if I can take up this practice.
What about making an executive summary slide that is a list of bullets made of all key action titles? Would that be an okayish case for a clothesline? Would you add some icons to make it look a bit less bland?
Great tips although lengthy video 😛. I work for a big IT company and create presentations just like this almost daily. We know about this because we are part of corp strategy and have some idea of how to make consulting type ppts. But as u correctly said, this is not the way 95% of ppts are made in big orgs. Quite strange though.
Hey Heinrich, I was wondering where you see the difference between a „takeaway box“ and an „action title“. In my experience the content of these may overlap/be repetitive. What is your take on this? Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi Adrian, yes, agree that the action title and the takeaway box can be quite similar. Key thing to realize is that there is no need to put a takeaway box on all pages, rather use it as an additional tool in your box if helpful. You should indeed avoid just repeating the action title in the takeaway box. Common way to use it is to include an insight in it that is a bit more specific / focusing on a given detail than the action title. E.g., action title could be "Company faced growth of X% across all business units", then the takeaway box "Y is the fastest growing business unit with growth of Z%".. hope you get the idea. Best! Heinrich
First of all, I love the video. Besides the 3 min long intro there are some really advanced tips for a beginner like me. Has somebody recreated the slides from the video and would share them?
Hey Heinrich, can you tell me the main difference between the action title and the takeaway box? To me it contains pretty much the same information, or am i wrong? Nice video by the way :)
Hi Malte, agree that it is often quite similar. The action title should be the main message. You should avoid just repeating that in the action title. Instead, you can usually use a takeaway box if there is another important point which is not as broadly relevant and important as the action title. Best! Heinrich
Hi, usually the higher the font size, the better. Most pages have a font size between 12 and 18 based on the type of page. Font size smaller than 10 should be avoided! Best, Heinrich
Hi Panyarak, thank you for your comment. Personally I have not used another plug-in besides think-cell. Have heard that "Mekko" is quite nice as well, but was not yet able to test it. Best! Heinrich
Thanks for the video. Do you find using flaticons helpful in presentations? Eg as an illustrative element to help the reader imagine the point being discussed? Or do you think it reduces the 'professional' look & feel of the presentation? Thanks!
Hi man, thanks for your question! I usually do them with think-cell (a PPT plugin), there it is very easy. Tried to quickly google it, it does seem possible to do it natively out of PPT as well though! Best, H
I've joined a VC firm after consulting, and kind of miss using thinkcell because its so much faster, was wondering if you could make a video on thinkcell alternatives that we can purchase on an individual basis?
Hi Chee, thanks for your comment! Frankly not aware of Think-Cell alternatives that I believe are similar. From what I know, the smallest license that you can get is a license for 5 people for about 1.000 EUR per year. Maybe there is an option to get it at your firm if several people use it? Best! Heinrich
Hey Heinrich, Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it! Do MBB consultants use Macs or Windows PCs? Please keep on creating this kind of content (hands-on excel & powerpoint "tutorials").
Hi, thanks for watching! Windows is still the standard, main reason (imo) is that programs like Excel still have compatibility issues if you work with more complex / advanced models. You do not want to risk that the file does not work correctly when you send it to the client for these reasons. Best! Heinrich
Very helpful (beautiful work) BUT what happens when you work in a country or company that values excess data, which leads to chaotic presentations (maximum amount of details as possible on each slide)? *coughFrancecough* Also, in your course, do you show how to make the presentations more efficiently/quickly?
Hi Matt, for sure there are different shades of grey in the style depending on firm and geography e.g., on how "full" the pages are supposed to be, suggest to just adapt to what is customary in your office :) Regarding production speed, I have a video on this channel talking about Slide Blueprints, hope that this might be helpful! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Thanks Heinrich. As a consultant presenting to other firms (possibly in other countries), did you just learn to adapt quickly to their preferred method? Or did you keep consistent with your MBB styling?
Waterfall chart is useful. Structured elements I agree that it makes the presentation better in terms of visualization and structuring, but number circles starting at 17:00 is ridiculous. All in all, the entire gist of MBB presentation is about being visual, being organized and being logically structured.
Hi, thanks for sharing! Personally I do find the number circles to be quite helpful, but there are other ways to solve this for sure as well :) Best! Heinrich
Hope this video is helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! Interested to learn more about creating consulting-style slide presentations? This is the link to my slide writing course I mention in the video: link.firmlearning.com/slides
Thank you for this video!
Any recommendations where I can buy off the shelf (ready to edit) slides and templates?
Hi!!!! Really loved the video! When will the full training course be available? Looking forward to it!
What i really like about Firm Learning videos is that the topic is dealth with in very caring and sincere way. Loads of honesty out there. Very very nice..excellent and thanks a lot!
Hi Tasneem, thank you for your comment. Of course very happy to hear that you like the style of the videos :) Best! Heinrich
I have watched many videos on creating slides like management consultants and this by far is the most useful! Thank you
Happy to hear that, thanks Roaae!
I'm not even a consultant but he's just so endearing and helpful
;) Thanks for your kind words, appreciate it!! Best, Heinrich
Interesting! This is so true! I did an internship at BCG and I clearly remember seeing all these elements!
Hi Joao, thanks for sharing. Great to hear BCG is working in a similar way! ;) Best, Heinrich
Great video and thank you for sharing your knowledge! Another tip I would like to highlight in addition to the ones mentioned are:
1) Font type, size and style - don't overdue it, keep things simple e.g. 2-3 at most.
1) The same goes for general color range. Simplify them e.g. use one for negative and another for positive developments. Try to align them with your presentation template colors, avoid the rainbow.
Thank you Heinrich, I learned great tips from this video.
Very valid points. Thanks for sharing Nasso, much appreciated! Best, Heinrich
Yes use the clients brand colour as your theme
Plz make a series of your quality content. Don't keep it as a random video . Create a playlist and boom!
It should look like complete curriculum for management consultants
You have actually replied to every single comment! You have not played "safe" here as a Consultant by saying "I will try to" :) I wish you good luck for the channel! and I hope you get a lot of comments so that you think of saying "I will try to" :p
Haha thanks Saurabh appreciate it! ;) Comments indeed increased significantly over the last weeks but will try to keep up with them as long as possible ;) Best, H
Last year I quit consulting and joined an international bank in Frankfurt in a risk management position, and I felt that my presentations often did not meet the needs of the board members. Therefore, I think that your tips are very helpful even for non-advisory activities. Thank you for passing on your advice!
Hi Marvin, super happy to hear that the videos are helpful. Lots of success to you for your new role in Frankfurt!! Best, Heinrich
The last slide was extremely valuable. The clothesline is a common component in many presentations and this is a very constructive way to overcome it.
Hi Patrick, thanks for your comment! Great to hear you found it helpful - avoiding clotheslines is indeed an important concept! Best, Heinrich
I am a first year MBA student and I am so happy to have found your page. My team and I are working on a case study presentation and this has been super helpful. Thank you!
Hi man, super happy to hear that thank you for your feedback. Lots of success to you and your team! Best, Heinrich
This video is so helpful! I just started my new job and tried to improve slide presentation skill eagerly.
Appreciate it Sherry, thank you for watching! Best, Heinrich
Heinrich, your channel is the most inspiring for self development in structuring consulting offers. You are doing a great work!
Wow, thank you! Super happy to hear that! Best! Heinrich
Congrats on 1K subscribers Heinrich and want to let u know I'm finding your videos very insightful!
Thank you Elif! Very encouraging to hear given that I am still at the very beginning with all of this :) Best! Heinrich
I used to work with McK as their client, yes McK had a very good and authentic way in developing their presentations. We learnt so much from them.
Happy to hear that, thank you! Best, Heinrich
Just started working as an In-house consulting, this was very insightful ! Looking forward to more of these :)
Glad to hear the material is helpful! Look out for this Saturday's video, it will talk about the slide creation process as well! Best, Heinrich
This is awesome! One point I think you can highlight as well is the importance of visual formatting, particularly the usage of colors. For example, in the waterfall graph that shows changes in EBITDA, negative-EBITDA factors can be colored light red while positive can be light green. This makes it easier for someone to just look at the slide and "get it".
Good point, thanks for adding your perspective!
Great video. I am a consultant and have been on a mission most of my career to clean up PowerPoint slides. So many people do PowerPoint wrong.
Unfortunately you are correct.. thanks for watching and sharing! :) Best, Heinrich
Thank you Heinrich for another valuable session on management consulting. I really loved the concepts on waterfall chart and where to use them and why we should refrain from the clothlines into more logical structures.i think your course on ceo presentation is one of the most valuable course so far to make structured presentations and I personally feel this is something even top business schools and large consulting firms dont teach or share. I would really recommend your course and all your videos and look forward to more new thinking and helpful consulting tips. I also think how to leverage meeko charts is something will be valuable to know in future seasons and what situations we should use different grids 2x2 and also how to.create our own hypothesis and validate same top down and bottom up Thank you again for so much guidance and valuable tips. Take care
Thanks Arihant! Yes, Mekko charts are pretty interesting as well, even though they are a little bit more niche in their actual application :) Hypothesis-driven thinking with explanation on top-down vs. bottom-up approach also for sure a relevant topic for potential future videos. Thanks as always for your contributions. Best, Heinrich
How have I just known about this channel?!!! Incredible stuff - definitely subscribed and sharing with my team. Keep up the brilliant work.
Hi Adam, welcome to the channel :) Thanks so much - great to hear the videos are helpful! Best, Heinrich
Great awareness, why didn’t you were when my career was srtarting; thank you for sharing life career hacks that are not taught in school
:) Thanks for watching Ollie! Great to hear you found the video helpful! Best, Heinrich
Your teaching is very good for beginners... Because I can tell from my experience in firm for 4 years till currently working as BPS and I do presentation day in and day out as u would know already as VA what we do so I can assure this teaching is very good for beginners good one👍
Super glad to hear that, thanks for watching Francis! :) Pleasure to have an expert in my audience!! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Please do let me know if any help needed I will be happy to help you on that.
Another fantastic video - the Minto pyramid principle can also be used to highlight structure in a slide and how you should structure the points. You may have already addressed in a different video!
Thanks, appreciate it! Indeed touched on pyramid principle in several videos, but definitely much more to say about this! Best, Heinrich
Very very good and informative. Thank u for this. Best video in ur series I’ve seen yet.
Hi Kenneth - thank you!! Happy to hear the video is helpful :) Best, Heinrich
i am not in the first year, coming off from engineering consultancy going into management consultancy... i am still in the interview process... i really don't know if I can cope with it... many reasons for me to make the jump... money is one of those reasons... and i don't see myself excelling in the engineering line anymore... because I enjoy utilizing my people skills... i hope this is the correct jump for me... thank you mate!
3:21 is when he starts
Thanks for watching!! Best, H
a lot of useless ramlings at the beginning. fortunately though, he doesn‘t charge an extra fee for it...
9:05 callouts:
give details to the charts.
10:45 stickers:
1. type of stickers: for discussion, preliminary, highly preliminary, indicate, illustrative.
2. why important: protect yourself
11:10 I'm interested to hear your opinion, also. why do you believe this is true?
11:25 when some clients say it is BS and do happen, but the problem is just maybe you don't have all the data needed.
12:40 indicate, illustrative: the number is maybe not right, but for the directionally-wise is somehow correct.
14:30 takeaway: general information to the whole chart
15:10 often, a bubble: limitation to the data you're showing.
16:35 if in trouble, use a bubble.
16:50 number circles ??? 不懂用處
19:40 clotheslines: unstructured and random. the people are not trust the statement you present.
if you have just thoughts, these are completely not professional.
20:50 in M&A, the structured elements will look like this.
21:30 to avoid clotheslines: you can create buckets.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Teaches business presentation strategy, I dig it. Lol! Great video man. Thanks.
Thank you for your leadership on this initiative
Love it! ;) Thanks for watching! Best, H
Another awesome video! I have purchased your course on Udemy and it definitely added tremendous value. I have recommended it to many colleagues.
Where does McKinsey, BCG, and Bain get icons from used on their slides and articles?
Thank you, very much appreciate it! Most consulting firms will have their own libraries of icons. For personal use, if you google "icons powerpoint" or something similar, you will find all kinds of icons that you can use. Best! Heinrich
Could you do a video on formating tables for powerpoint presentations please? Sometimes data tables are inevitable and giving them a nice format is a struggle
Hi Daniel, yes great topic indeed. Might pick this up in the future! Best, Heinrich
Congratulations on 1000 Subscribers. Really inspiring content;)
Thanks!! :)
Great video!! Thanks for the efforts. Would love to see more videos about how to improve hard skills(Excel, PPT) of consultants. Can't wait to learn more!
Thanks for your feedback! Yes, will release more videos like this in the future! Best, Heinrich
Very useful content, presented with honesty.
Keep up the good work
Thanks, happy to hear you enjoyed the video! Best, Heinrich
This is great! This is something we can't learn outside of the consulting firm. As a small business owner, I think the presentation layer is as important as the analysis process. Or I can say the better presentation slides also helps the clear analysis. My current workflow is to use Python Pandas and pyplot to draw something quick(ugly...) for slides but it seems there's a lot to learn and be improved! Thank you and I'll keep follow this channel. Cheers!
Hi Charles, thanks for your comment. Your process sounds already pretty sophisticated with Python Pandas :) Happy to hear the video was helpful. All the best to you - Heinrich
@@FirmLearning The truth is we make the excel way complicated so I have to write python code to grab part of the data that I really need and then draw the graph.:) Simple line or scatter plot is typically dawn for quick analysis but now I learned much better presentation layer in your video. Thank you!
Optimizing Slide Elements: Key Considerations for Effective Presentations
Date: Include the current date on each slide to indicate when the document was created or presented.
Page Number: Add page numbers for easy reference during discussions or meetings.
Source: Specify the source of information or data used on the slide, including the date of collection.
Footnotes: Utilize footnotes to provide additional remarks or details that complement the main content.
Action Title: Craft concise and impactful titles for each slide to capture the main message.
Stickers: Use stickers as qualifiers or labels to convey the context and purpose of the slide. Common stickers include "For Discussion," "Preliminary," "Highly Preliminary," "Indicative," and "Illustrative." They help manage expectations and protect against misinterpretation.
Takeaway Box: Include a takeaway box beneath charts or visuals to highlight the main insight or key information.
Avoid Clotheslines: Refrain from using long lists of bullet points without structure. Instead, employ clear and organized structural elements to present information effectively.
Very helpful! Every presentation has to stand on its own!
Thanks for watching Timothy. Great to hear the video is helpful :) Best, Heinrich
Cool - illustrative is so much shorter than "pulled out of thin air" I used up to now.
;) thats it!! Best, H
Hi, Heinrich. Thank you very much for this video. It inspired me to buy your course on Udemy and I also purchased your course on Bitcoin and Blockchain. I am looking forward to commence my learning on Udemy soon. Thank you and take care.
Hi Kennet, thanks for your support, much appreciated. Indeed hope the courses will be helpful! Best, Heinrich
Thank you . You are insightful.
Wish you cut the first introductory part and proceed to main points faster
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, agree. Have already started to cut it down for recent videos, will be more mindful of it going forward. Best! Heinrich
Hi, this is amazing contents, thanks for sharing, some very good insights I've never thought about! Would you happen to have more about the "structure", i.e. the design and break-down of thinking, part? I've noticed that consultancy slides tend to go left->right, from big categories/ topics, into specific items of those. Thanks again.
Hi Manasak, thank you happy to hear that! Good idea! Yes, might make a future video about this :) Thanks! Heinrich
This is a good video. Recommend anyone who makes ppt to watch this!
Hi Jiawen, very happy to hear that - thank you!! Best, Heinrich
Such an informative and well explained video. Thoroughly enjoyed the content. All the best 👍
Thank you appreciate it Devarshi! Best, Heinrich
Excellent video! Please continue uploading interesting videos!!
Thanks Andreas - will do! :) Best, H
Awesome high quality content! Just purchased the course as well.. Thanks!!
Thanks Ashley, hope you find it useful!! Best, Heinrich
Great video! Thanks for sharing your experience.
The content is outstanding and I learned a lot and will subscribe to your channel.
Three tips to make it a 10/10 video:
- love that you kept your camera on when recording the slides. I found it a bit distracting that the video is on the bottom right corner and you looked to the right as well. Consider putting the video on the left or mirror the video. This will make you look at the great content you produce.
- you have a window in your background. This is always a difficult setup for lightning when recording a video
- since you use you mouse pointer to show things it would help to use a mouse pointer highlighter to focus
Hi Sascha, thank you for your feedback, very much appreciate it. Yes, that makes total sense!! Best, Heinrich
As a scientist, I have to communicate findings all the time. Never have I ever seen plots that bad.... And this goes not against you... much rather against the common management ppt slide ;) there is a reason why, on Reddit, they make fun of presentations from consulting firms...
Hi, thanks for sharing your perspective. What exactly do you mean by "plots that bad"? I am currently pursuing a PhD myself and therefore also attend research conferences etc. Frankly, I do not have the impression that most scientist are very effective in communicating their findings and data on slides, though there are of course exceptions. What is your discipline, maybe this also differs by subject? Of course always happy to learn more about this topic. Best, Heinrich
Firm Learning - I should have clarified that, within our field (Neuroscience), I’ll find plenty of bad examples as well. Especially on conference posters. :) I made a general comment about the amount of excel bar graphs I‘ve seen in the industry (highlight: unlabeled axes). And I’m not saying: complex = good. Sorry if it wasn’t clear from my first post.
@@rand39830 Yes makes sense. Best! Heinrich
I shall be joining Big4 Consulting, thankyou for helping me to prepare beforehand. Danke Schon!
Thank you very much. Very useful. Is there any "sticker" that can indicate that the conclusions of the data shown on the current slide will arrive later on the next slides? Thank you!
Love the presentation! Thank you!
Thank YOU for watching Manish, much appreciated! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning You are so welcome!
This is really useful! Would you happen to have a template for the slide shown min 22?
Hi Hugo, thanks for the comment. Not yet, but might put all these slides into a template package. Stay tuned for that! Best, Heinrich
Hi Heinrich,
Please keep going on :)
I appreciated your content.
At the beginning of the video, your mug was shown on the brand-free side.
BR,
Frédéric
Thanks for watching Frederic! Appreciate the feedback!
Hi Heinrich, thank you so much for the amazing video. One side question: I am curious about what you are using in daily work to deal with researching incl. collection info, distilling insight in reports and managing knowledge which then can be the input of your presentation. I am using basic onenote/word/ppt/folders for such work. Organising my findings in notes, saving the reports/websites and searching based on what I have found has always been a pain. Could you please share your experience and tools you use to manage this? Thank you very much!
Hi Mol, thanks for watching! This indeed changed over time, currently I am taking notes on my laptop for most meetings and using OneNote as an app to organize it all. Might take this topic up for one of the future videos, thanks for suggesting! Best, Heinrich
Great video! Something I didn’t hear you talk about are animations. Do you use animations to display a callout/bubble for example?
Hi! No, animations are very rarely used in these settings. Main reason is that documents are not optimized for presentations, often they are just printed out for meetings / sent around as a PDF without ever actually being presented. Best! Heinrich
Thank you so much. I just discovered your channel and it's gold. ❤
Super happy to hear that. Thank YOU for watching!! Best, Heinrich
Thank you Heinrich, this is the video what I really looking for.
Very glad to hear that. Thanks for watching! Best, Heinrich
Incredibly useful video, thanks a lot! On another note, I am currently studying International Business (most graduates become consultants). Thus, my question is: How did you land a job at McKinsey?
Hi Christian, nothing super special about my application journey. I applied for an internship during my Bachelor via the online application form (no referral / personal connection or the like), then got the internship and then got a full-time offer after the internship. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Thanks for the rapid response Heinrich! I have a couple of other questions, would it be possible to reach you on email or anything of the likes?
Best regard,
Christian
Super hilfreich! Vielen vielen Dank, Heinrich.
Das freut mich sehr, vielen lieben Dank Aniruth! LG, Heinrich
Very useful video, this is totally new to me, I just hope I can a way for me to practice.
I like the way you present，I really enjoy from your video and it delight me a lot， thanks
Super happy to hear that, thank you!! Best, Heinrich
Thanks Heinrich! Was looking for videos like this for some time, as I was struggling a bit when I transitioned from an engineering role to consulting. Also signed up to your Udemy course, so looking forward to completing it.
Hi Nurzhan, thank you very glad to hear it is helpful. Hope you like the course as well! Lots of success to you! Best, Heinrich
Hi Heinrich. Great guide. It would be great to learn from you any tips on how to write up the commentary on the slides and the style you take. I
Hi Tak,
Thanks for watching and your comments! Frankly, in consulting (at least what I experienced at McKinsey) people do not usually write down commentaries for the slides. Probably due to three reasons:
1) Slides are usually already supposed to "stand for themselves" with all the relevant facts and information on the page. Therefore no need to provide even more data in excess of that.
2) Due to the tight deadlines, teams often make changes until the very end, now also spending time on writing commentaries would just be too much to handle.
3) Consultants, especially the more senior ones then presenting the content to senior clients, usually are pretty strong at presentation skills, also because they do it so frequently. They are trained to present slides without the need of specific "talking points". The partner who walks in and delivers the presentation with slides he has never seen before is also kind of a meme in consulting in itself ;)
Hope this makes sense to you. However, writing good end effective summaries / minutes after important meetings or similar briefings is a skill you need more frequently in consulting. Doing this well is not trivial. So yes, this might be a good idea for future videos, have added this to my idea list for future content! :)
Best and thanks,
Heinrich
I use the waterfall chart pretty much for all C level presentation to breakdown the earnings and ebitda. Didn't know it isn't widely used in corporate presentations...
Hi Said, yes agree, waterfalls are great to decompose financials! Best, Heinrich
Thank you for sharing such beneficial and valuable knowledge and insights
Happy to hear it helps! Best, Heinrich
Hi Heinrich, thank you so much for the great videa. A question, what's teh difference between a takeaway box and the action title? Under what circumstances would you use teh takeaway box?
Good information and too the point delivery. Thank you for the support.
Thank you appreciate it! Best, H
thanks for sharing!, What is the difference between information shown by kicker and action title? both of them are used to display the main idea of the slide, Right?
Hi Rishabh, in the action title you include the main message, in the takeaway box usually rather a more specific message that should be on a lower hierarchy level than the main message. Best! Heinrich
Great tips and tricks! Can you recommend one tool to help us in the presentation?
Obviously, except for Word, Excel and Sway
Hi Julio, yes! Check out think-cell. It is a plugin for PowerPoint that is used by almost all consulting firms and many corporates as well. Super helpful in quickly creating great charts! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Appreciatively!
OMG - I use clotheslines all the time :-) You give me something to chew on. I mean that is *a lot* of work to convert these into structure elements. Even more when you actually only want to list options. Will see if I can take up this practice.
Sounds good. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule :) Lots of success to you!! Best, Heinrich
Klasse Video. Hat mir sehr gut gefallen und die Tipps sind auch Klasse.
Freut mich, danke dir! LG, Heinrich
Awesome content! And a Question for you..Is this similar to what BPS design slides for their Consultants at McKinsey.Thank you.
Hi Harshini, to be honest not too familiar with BPS design.. but yes in general this is a typical layout for MBB firms! Best, Heinrich
Super helpful video, thanks for sharing.
Thank YOU for watching Richard! Best, Heinrich
What about making an executive summary slide that is a list of bullets made of all key action titles? Would that be an okayish case for a clothesline? Would you add some icons to make it look a bit less bland?
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes, Executive Summaries are indeed an exception, they can and should be created in this format. Best! Heinrich
Thank you. This is very helpful. Subscribed for more.
Thank you Vithesh, great to hear this! More to come, stay tuned :) Best! Heinrich
Great stuffs Heinrich! keep going !
Denny my man, super happy to hear from you here. Thanks for watching!! :) Best, Heinrich
Great tips although lengthy video 😛. I work for a big IT company and create presentations just like this almost daily. We know about this because we are part of corp strategy and have some idea of how to make consulting type ppts. But as u correctly said, this is not the way 95% of ppts are made in big orgs. Quite strange though.
Thanks for sharing! Yes agree :) Best, Heinrich
Super valuable content, really helpful to improve my PowerPoint presentation slides! Thanks for putting all this effort into your videos. Cheers
Thank you, much appreciated! Best, Heinrich
Thanks for all your efforts Heinrich!
My pleasure! Thanks for your comment. Best, Heinrich
Hey Heinrich, I was wondering where you see the difference between a „takeaway box“ and an „action title“. In my experience the content of these may overlap/be repetitive. What is your take on this? Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi Adrian, yes, agree that the action title and the takeaway box can be quite similar. Key thing to realize is that there is no need to put a takeaway box on all pages, rather use it as an additional tool in your box if helpful. You should indeed avoid just repeating the action title in the takeaway box.
Common way to use it is to include an insight in it that is a bit more specific / focusing on a given detail than the action title. E.g., action title could be "Company faced growth of X% across all business units", then the takeaway box "Y is the fastest growing business unit with growth of Z%".. hope you get the idea.
Best! Heinrich
Understood! Much appreciated.
Adrian
@@adriansommerkamp5260 Sure thing! Best, H
Excellent Video. It will aid me a lot in making presentations.
Great to hear! Thanks for watching!
First of all, I love the video. Besides the 3 min long intro there are some really advanced tips for a beginner like me. Has somebody recreated the slides from the video and would share them?
Thank you Beyer, appreciate you watching! Best, Heinrich
Excellent helpful video !
Thank you Saleh!! :) Best, Heinrich
Hey Heinrich, can you tell me the main difference between the action title and the takeaway box? To me it contains pretty much the same information, or am i wrong? Nice video by the way :)
Hi Malte, agree that it is often quite similar. The action title should be the main message. You should avoid just repeating that in the action title. Instead, you can usually use a takeaway box if there is another important point which is not as broadly relevant and important as the action title. Best! Heinrich
This is a great video and really useful!!
Thank you Sofia, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Great video! Are there guidelines you recommend for margins and font sizes for the different levels of a slide, in order to maintain legibility?
Hi, usually the higher the font size, the better. Most pages have a font size between 12 and 18 based on the type of page. Font size smaller than 10 should be avoided! Best, Heinrich
Hi, Heinrich! Thank you for making this video. I'm wondering if you've come across any similarly powerful plug-in as Think-Cell?
Hi Panyarak, thank you for your comment. Personally I have not used another plug-in besides think-cell. Have heard that "Mekko" is quite nice as well, but was not yet able to test it. Best! Heinrich
McKinsey uses Think-cell. its dependable. Go for it
Outside consulting, you rarely see waterfall chart is being used? Serious?
Thanks for the video. Do you find using flaticons helpful in presentations? Eg as an illustrative element to help the reader imagine the point being discussed? Or do you think it reduces the 'professional' look & feel of the presentation? Thanks!
Hi Divan, they are ok / good if selectively used, but you can for sure overdo it :) Best! Heinrich
Just found your channel, really good stuff! Great work 😁
Super happy to hear that - thank you Jan!! Best, Heinrich
Alternatives to clothes Ines when u can't use structure?? Bullet points .. do you reduce or simplify?
Hi Miro! Would argue that it is almost always possible to find a structure. At least try to group your bullet points! Best, Heinrich
Do you have other videos that take technical points clothes lines
Question for you, how do you make a vertical waterfall? I have been unable to do that in excel and could not find how to it online!
Hi man, thanks for your question! I usually do them with think-cell (a PPT plugin), there it is very easy. Tried to quickly google it, it does seem possible to do it natively out of PPT as well though! Best, H
I've joined a VC firm after consulting, and kind of miss using thinkcell because its so much faster, was wondering if you could make a video on thinkcell alternatives that we can purchase on an individual basis?
Hi Chee, thanks for your comment! Frankly not aware of Think-Cell alternatives that I believe are similar. From what I know, the smallest license that you can get is a license for 5 people for about 1.000 EUR per year. Maybe there is an option to get it at your firm if several people use it? Best! Heinrich
Hi Chee! Try Mekko Graphics. I have worked with Think Cell and find Mekko Graphics way better. 🙂
@@marialetorresmiroquesada7698 I just went to look at it... but the pricing is a little expensive.
Hey Heinrich,
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I really appreciate it! Do MBB consultants use Macs or Windows PCs? Please keep on creating this kind of content (hands-on excel & powerpoint "tutorials").
Hi, thanks for watching! Windows is still the standard, main reason (imo) is that programs like Excel still have compatibility issues if you work with more complex / advanced models. You do not want to risk that the file does not work correctly when you send it to the client for these reasons. Best! Heinrich
Very helpful (beautiful work) BUT what happens when you work in a country or company that values excess data, which leads to chaotic presentations (maximum amount of details as possible on each slide)? *coughFrancecough*
Also, in your course, do you show how to make the presentations more efficiently/quickly?
Hi Matt, for sure there are different shades of grey in the style depending on firm and geography e.g., on how "full" the pages are supposed to be, suggest to just adapt to what is customary in your office :) Regarding production speed, I have a video on this channel talking about Slide Blueprints, hope that this might be helpful! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Thanks Heinrich. As a consultant presenting to other firms (possibly in other countries), did you just learn to adapt quickly to their preferred method? Or did you keep consistent with your MBB styling?
Great content! Thank you!
Thank YOU for watching Bruno, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
I work at BCG this is pretty accurate haha
Happy to hear that - thank you for your comment! :) Best, Heinrich
Waterfall chart is useful. Structured elements I agree that it makes the presentation better in terms of visualization and structuring, but number circles starting at 17:00 is ridiculous.
All in all, the entire gist of MBB presentation is about being visual, being organized and being logically structured.
Hi, thanks for sharing! Personally I do find the number circles to be quite helpful, but there are other ways to solve this for sure as well :) Best! Heinrich
Thank you; useful content. Wouldn't usually make it through a 24 min video!
Appreciate it, thank you Paul! Best, Heinrich
Amazing information. Thanks!
Thanks for watching! :) Best, Heinrich
Thank you very much, sir. I am so glad to have found your channel :).
Hi Kenneth, super happy to hear the videos are helpful! :) Best! Heinrich