Board meetings are stressful, especially preparing that infamous quarterly meeting deck. As a serial CFO turned CEO, I've worked with boards of all sizes and backgrounds, and presented at my fair share of board meetings.
Michael Brown of Battery Ventures and I offered our advice on creating and delivering an impactful board deck. Check out the highlights below.
10 tips to level up your board deck
- Define 2-3 key topics and build your agenda and deck around it using words and pictures. Your deck should have a flow with transitions and a place for business performance vs. strategy.
- Be transparent and balanced in your messaging. Share what’s working and not working, so you can focus on solutions, not what might be missing.
- Start with the high-level takeaways and be prepared to drill down. Don’t try to share everything on a slide all at once. Let the board ask questions and you will shine.
- Always share context on the numbers. Is $1M good, bad, or on track? Variance or using Red/Yellow/Green to highlight progress is a simple way to share a lot of context at once.
- Share callbacks. Refer back to previous presentations/conversations to ground the meeting and provide greater context for recommendations.
- Add page numbers. Yes, seriously! You’d be surprised how frequently “go to slide 17” creates mass confusion during a board meeting.
- Provide a clear call to action. Ask the board for what your business needs: approvals, support, and answers. Provide space in the agenda for discussion with a clear takeaway.
- Send the appendix/data deck ahead of time. It will answer all of the questions upfront that may derail the meeting.
- Keep the font size 14 or larger. Ensuring you only present the most crucial info.
- A picture is worth a thousand words. Wherever possible, use visuals (graphs, charts, scoring systems, etc).
4 common pitfalls CFOs and CEOs should avoid
- Don’t wait until the last minute. Board prep should start about a month before the board meeting takes place.
- Don’t create too much new work for the board meeting. Design a set of standard KPI slides and use them for managing your business and reporting out to the board.
- Don’t forget to practice your mental math. If you don’t know the answer to an on-the spot question, you can often share parts of it (e.g., it’s roughly 20% of last quarter’s number).
- Don’t be too precise. Accuracy is good, but too much precision can dilute the message. Know the board's materiality threshold and report on it (e.g., $millions vs. $thousands).
Check out the full deck for deeper dives into:
- Creating a prep timeline so you, your team, and the board are all on the same page
- Tailoring your presentation to what the board actually cares about
- Presenting your data so it makes the right impact
- Being prepared for what lies ahead
- Avoiding common board deck pitfalls
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