A Comprehensive Guide to Crafting Winning Walking Decks
You have often read about sales presentations, product decks, investor pitches, and more. But have you ever heard of walking decks? Walking decks are one of the most convenient and preferred means of communication in today’s globalized era.
Walking decks are concise presentations that can be understood without a speaker or a presenter. They are self-explanatory slides that include enough information to communicate the message effectively. They allow individuals to read and gather data at their own pace. It not only provides flexibility but also enhances retention.
These presentations are often delivered without a screen or formal narration and are usually sent to others through emails.
Learn more about walking decks in this article.
Difference Between a Slide Deck and a Walking Deck
The key difference between a slide and a walking deck is the presence of a presenter. While slide decks are given by presenters with a formal delivery and narration, walking decks are for self-consumption.
Slide decks aim to engage with the audience through dialogue and delivery. They focus on anchoring the audience’s attention onto the speaker. However, walking decks lay emphasis on clarity and communication. They intend to deliver detailed explanations, reports, and data in an organized manner.
Who are the Main Users of Walking Decks?
- Entrepreneurs and Startup Owners – Present market analysis, business plan, and more to potential investors or partners for seeking investment or collaboration.
- Sales and Marketing Professionals – Use walking decks as a brochure, highlighting value proposition, USP, financial projection, etc.
- Analysts and Consultants – Showcase data analysis, market trends, findings, and recommendations to clients.
- Educators and Tutors – For educators, walking decks act as self-explanatory handouts that help students learn remotely.
Slides to Include in Your Walking Deck Presentation
1. Cover Slide
This is the first slide of your presentation and acts like a hook. It determines how glued your audience would be to the remaining slides. Therefore, it is crucial to make it captivating and impressive.
The introduction slide includes your topic and subtopic. It describes the purpose of your presentation and explains its importance for the reader. It also contains basic details such as your company’s name, logo, your name, designation, etc.
2. Table of Contents
Next, incorporate a detailed table of contents. It shows various topics covered in the presentation, along with their slide numbers. It is an integral part of the deck, guiding the reader from one topic to another.
You can also explain your topic in a line or two under the main heading in your table of contents. It eases the navigation process and makes communication much more effective.
3. Executive Summary
The executive summary provides a snapshot of the entire project, plan, or idea. It shows your business introduction, vision, mission, and values and helps establish competence. The executive summary should highlight your offering- seeking investment, encouraging purchase, pitching a product, etc.
It should include the key points of your proposal and highlight the benefits for the reader. Remember to keep your summary straightforward and easy to understand to avoid confusion.
4. Timeline and Roadmap
Timelines and roadmaps are an excellent way to chronologically showcase your business plan, product innovations, projects, etc. The readers can get a bird’s eye view of the development of your work and comprehend it without any ambiguity.
You must highlight important dates and milestones in your timelines and roadmaps and ensure they are well-described. Since this slide will be read independently, it should be simple to understand.
5. Key Performance Indicators
The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) slide is essential for demonstrating measurable success and progress. This slide should highlight the most critical metrics that reflect your business’s performance, such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, engagement rates, or product adoption.
Using numbers and percentages makes your claims more credible and gives your audience a clear understanding of how well your business is performing.
For a walking deck, clarity is key. So, avoid overwhelming the audience with excessive data. Instead, focus on 3-5 key metrics that align with your business goals and industry standards. You can also include a comparison (such as year-over-year growth or industry benchmarks) to add context.
6. Conclusion and CTA
This is the last slide of your presentation and serves as another opportunity to leave an indelible mark on the audience. Summarize the key takeaways from your presentation, highlight critical data points, and reinforce your unique selling propositions.
Include a CTA or Call to Action that guides the reader on what steps are to be taken next. Whether it is scheduling a call, purchasing a product, signing up for email, or investing in your venture, the CTA should be clear and concise.
Tips to Create a Walking Deck Presentation
(i). Pick a Simple Template
Crafting walking deck presentations from scratch can be quite burdensome, considering the stakes involved. Since these presentations need to be understood by the readers themselves, they need to be perfect in design and layout. Thus, picking a simple and minimal template is crucial.
Templates can make your presentations look clutter-free. It enhances focus and allows readers to grasp the message at a glance. While picking a template, ensure it resonates with your theme and subject.
(ii). Use Clear Language and Avoid Jargon
Clarity is key to making a successful walking presentation. Instead of overwhelming the audience with complicated words and phrases, use simple sentences in layman’s language. Avoid incorporating jargon and technical terms. However, if you include them, consider explaining them in brackets or footer notes. Use bullet points and refrain from incorporating long paragraphs.
Here are a few questions that you can answer to understand whether your content is simple and easy or not-
- Can a person outside my industry understand this content?
- Can a beginner employee or trainee gather this content?
If your answer is yes, good enough. If it is no, rephrase your sentences.
(iii). Ensure Accessibility
An effective walking deck should be accessible and inclusive. It should be equipped enough to be read by those with visual impairments, linguistic barriers, etc. It should include necessary translations and alt texts.
To ensure accessibility, you can follow a few practices-
- Do not include any high-contrast combinations between the text and background.
- Use high-resolution images and videos that can be seen clearly.
- Avoid extremely fancy or cursive texts that are difficult to read. Use normal fonts.
(iv). Focus on Visuals
The visuals of your deck play a critical role in comprehension and communication. Start with a well-organized layout, use hierarchical texts for headings, sub-headings, and content, ensure coherence, and avoid clutter.
You can also include visuals such as graphs, charts, illustrations, infographics, and icons to express your points better. Maintain consistency in your visuals and stick to two or three colors that resonate with your brand.
Use Cases and Examples of Walking Deck
1. Culture Deck
Walking decks can be used to showcase the company’s culture to employees and the public. They can act as incredible talent attractors and enhance the company’s credibility. Let us understand with Netflix’s example.
The Netflix Culture deck is one of the most popular examples of a walking deck. Originally crafted by Netflix’s former Chief Talent Officer, Patty McCord, this deck outlines the company’s unique approach to freedom, responsibility, and high performance. Unlike traditional corporate presentations, the Netflix Culture Deck is designed as a self-explanatory, standalone presentation that anybody can read and understand.
One of the key strengths of this deck is that it is transparent and easy to fathom. It is structured in a way that makes it simple for the readers to follow, even without prior context.
2. Employee Onboarding
Onboarding employees include many tasks- from briefing them about the company’s vision, mission, and values to explaining their roles. Walking decks can be an asset here and help communicate responsibilities, expectations, rules and regulations, etc., to the employee.
For example, Buffer, a fully remote company, used a walking deck to clearly communicate its flexibility, transparency, and work-life balance policies. It helped their global team stay aligned, even without face-to-face meetings. By making expectations and company culture easily accessible, Buffer ensured that all employees remained on the same page regardless of location.
3. Internal Communication
Most organizations are widely spread and require efficient communication to avoid misunderstandings and ensure productivity. By leveraging walking decks, companies can seamlessly communicate and ensure alignment across all teams.
For instance, Google uses an OKR (Objective and Key Result) walking deck. This deck breaks down the company’s quarterly and annual goals and showcases them department-wise. This deck can be reviewed by employees from all over the globe, ensuring that everyone is aligned with the company’s priorities without needing a live presentation.
Conclusion
Walking deck presentations hold massive significance in today’s world. They help companies and individuals streamline communication and save time by eliminating the need for formal delivery. Most companies use these decks to boost efficiency and productivity.
By using the tips mentioned above, you, too, can craft stunning walking decks and impress your readers in the blink of an eye.
