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The Art of Powerpointing: 10/20/30 Rule

The presentation can’t be too short or too long. If it will be too short, the speaker will not reveal the essence of the matter. If it will be too long, the audience will get tired and will pass over the very important information. Here is an optimal outline for the content, length, and font of a good presentation:

- Ten slides

- Twenty minutes

- Thirty-point-font text

Ten slides

People always try to put on slides everything they know about the topic of their presentation. This is typical mistake. You should select key points only from the information you’ve found. Don’t put unessential information: it will divert attention from the key points of your presentation. If the audience doesn’t remember your presentation, be prepared to repeat 90 percent of your information once more.

Thus, the recommended number of slides for a presentation is ten. You can add more, if it will be necessary. Behind these ten slides you can put details, which will be (on your point of view) very necessary and very interesting. If you’re asked for a more in-depth explanation, it is nice to have these slides done in advance. In this way you should foresee possible tricky questions and include them in the additional slides. But you should never exceed twenty slides.

Try to concentrate on the absolute essentials.

Twenty minutes

Try to get through in twenty minutes. There are several reasons for this. First, you will not be given more than twenty minutes if there are other speakers.

Second, people usually keep concentration during 15-20 minutes. After this period the level of concentration starts decreasing very fast. The information, which will be presented after twenty minutes period, will be missed. It doesn’t matter how your presentation will be organized. Whether it will be presentation and then discussion or it will be a sequence of presentation and discussion, presentation and discussion, presentation and discussion; presentation should take up twenty minutes.

Thirty-point-font text

It will be very difficult for the audience to read the text smaller than fourteen points. If you have to use a small font to present your information, it means that you are putting too much detail on the slide. Each slide should contain one key point.

Use slides to lead, not read. They should paraphrase and enhance what is speaker trying to say. Because people can read faster than you talk, if you put too much detail on the slide, the audience will read ahead of you and not listen to what you’re saying.

Outline a few words about the topic you are going to present, and then describe these few words in detail. This approach will be more effective than putting everything you know on the slide.

Recommended reading

Guy Kawasaki. The art of the start: the time tested, battle-hardened guide for anyone starting anything. New York: Penguin Group, 2004

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