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Chart slides: before and after the one-takeaway rule
Five real chart slides, across five different kinds of presentations — plus the four habits behind every one of them. No signup required; use whichever parts are useful and build your own charts with them if you'd rather do it yourself.
Startup quarterly update
Before: everything, unlabelled
A 20-row spreadsheet of monthly sales figures, pasted onto the slide as a screenshot.
After: one number, stated
One bar chart with Q3 highlighted, captioned "Sales up 18% vs. Q2, driven by renewals."
Why it works: A spreadsheet screenshot asks the room to find the point themselves, usually while the presenter is already talking about the next slide. One chart with one highlighted bar and a plain-language caption does that work for them.
Nonprofit board update
Before: everything, unlabelled
A pie chart with 11 thin slices, no labels, several too small to read.
After: one number, stated
The top 4 spending categories named directly, the rest grouped as "Other," captioned "Programs are 72% of spend — in line with target."
Why it works: Eleven slices force the board to squint and guess at a legend. Naming only the categories that matter, with the rest grouped honestly, turns the chart into an answer instead of a puzzle.
Marketing campaign recap
Before: everything, unlabelled
A line chart tracking six overlapping metrics in different colours, with the legend floating off to one side.
After: one number, stated
A single line for conversion rate, captioned "Email conversion doubled after the subject-line test."
Why it works: Six lines on one chart means the audience spends the slide decoding colours instead of hearing the result. Showing the one metric the decision depends on makes the win impossible to miss.
Manufacturing ops review
Before: everything, unlabelled
A dense spreadsheet of daily defect counts, shown as an image too small to read from the back of the room.
After: one number, stated
A simple weekly column chart with a target line, captioned "Defect rate down to 1.2%, under the 1.5% target."
Why it works: Raw daily counts bury the trend in noise. Rolling the data up to weekly and adding a target line turns a wall of numbers into a chart that answers "are we on track?" at a glance.
University research presentation
Before: everything, unlabelled
Axes labelled only "x1" and "x2," with no units and no caption stating the finding.
After: one number, stated
Axes labelled in plain language, with units, under a one-line caption stating what the result shows.
Why it works: A chart with unlabelled axes only makes sense to the person who made it. Plain labels and a stated conclusion let someone who missed the methods slide still follow the result.
The four habits behind every rewrite above
Pick one number worth remembering
A slide with ten competing data points teaches the audience nothing in particular. Decide which single number the slide needs to prove, and build the chart around that one number.
Choose the chart type the comparison needs
A line chart for three static categories, or a pie chart for a trend over time, forces the reader to work out the shape before they get the point. Match the type to the comparison: line for change over time, bar for comparing categories, pie or stacked bar for share of a whole.
Say the takeaway in words, not just the chart
A chart alone asks the audience to do the arithmetic themselves, usually while only half-listening. A one-line caption stating the conclusion — not just the topic — does that work for them.
Cut anything that doesn't support that one number
Gridlines, a secondary axis, data labels on every single point, and categories that are not the point all compete for attention with the one thing the slide is for. If it does not support the takeaway, remove it.
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